


Dance Dance Lance!

by xXHetaliaXAmericaXx



Series: Voltron Zumba AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: "Enemies" to Friends to Lovers, Aged up characters, Because really only Lance thought they were enemies, Drinking, Drinking Games, Drunken Confessions, House Parties, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shiro and Allura try to hook them up, Slow Burn, Sporadic Updates, Zumba AU, irregular updates, obviously they're all college grads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2018-09-10 21:05:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 58,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXHetaliaXAmericaXx/pseuds/xXHetaliaXAmericaXx
Summary: Keith had no idea why he was standing outside of the Voltron Gym—sure, he promised Shiro he would show up, and if this class went well he’d get the job. The only issue was that it was … a Zumba class.  Holy. Shit. The brunet was tall—maybe an inch or two taller than Keith. He had broad shoulders that lead down to narrow hips. The bright blue crop top he was wearing hardly hiding how toned his torso was, and his tight black booty shorts barely covered his ass—was that even legal? *In which Keith needs to survive a Zumba class before being hired as a personal trainer, and gets distracted by the teacher-in-training.





	1. New Job and Old "Friends"

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse for this. I just really wanted Lance to be able to dance and Keith to be completely and utterly distracted by it.
> 
> Also the title will most likely change when I think of something better (I'm open to suggestions)
> 
> **Edit: Minor grammar editing

“Shiro, no.” Keith sighs for about the hundredth time that day. He had agreed to meet his brother for lunch—expecting a free meal while catching up. But instead he got dragged into a trap baited with free food. He slouches more in his seat, a scowl gracing his features as he tries to get his brother to back off.

 

“But it would be a great place for you to work—flexible hours, great coworkers, hell—you know Allura already so you know who your boss is going to be. I don’t see a downside to this at all.” Shiro leans forward and props his elbows on the table separating the pair, tilting his head as he shoots a knowing look at his younger brother. Damn it. Keith hated that look—the patented Big Brother Look™--the one that makes Keith give into his crazy sibling’s demands. He groans, leaning forward and faceplanting into the table.

 

“Yeah I know Allura—so I know how strict she can be.  I may be broke but I don’t have a fucking death wish.” Allura happened to live next door to Shiro and Keith when they were growing up—being a year older than Shiro, and several years older than Keith. Besides her apparent ‘air of maturity’ she shows to others, she is still the strict, stubborn, demanding girl from next door. “Besides, I’m sure she’s still pissed at me for making fun of her for teaching Zumba.”

 

Shiro sucks in a sharp intake of breath, leaning back and running a hand through his hair. “Yeaaaah—she’s still upset about it. But I’ve already talked it over with her about it and she’d be willing to give you a job still.”

 

Keith’s eyes widen as he quickly glances up at Shiro, a hopeful expression on his face. He’d love to work at the Voltron Gym—it’s the best gym in the city—and has the best pay. He goes to open his mouth to ask how, but then remembers that its Allura they’re dealing with and quickly shuts it, glaring dubiously at his brother. “What’s the catch?”

 

Shiro smiles crookedly, shit. That means it must be something Keith will absolutely hate—like apologizing. But he needs to buy food and pay rent so…. if he must. “You have to go to one of her classes.”

 

“…Shit.”

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith had no idea why he was standing outside of the Voltron Gym. Sure, he promised Shiro he would show up, and if this class went well he’d get the job. The only issue was that it was … a Zumba class. He had no idea how dancing could be considered ‘exercise’, but he figured that going to one class wasn’t going to kill him. Plus, Shiro would be there so at least he won’t be the only embarrassing one.  Plus, not getting evicted from his apartment and being able to afford food were also pluses in attending the class. Once he attends the class and gets the job, he doesn’t have to go ever again.

 

He takes in another deep breath before pushing the door and heading inside. The gym was bigger than it looked once inside. There were different sections for different kinds of working out; there was a weight room, cardio room, an indoor track, and multiple studios that held different work out classes. Instructors from the community could even rent one of the rooms to hold their own classes.

 

Shiro was waiting by the front desk, chatting pleasantly with the girl sitting behind the desk—a tall, lanky girl with long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and dressed in workout clothes.  When Keith took a few steps closer his brother finally noticed him and smile wide. He clapped a hand on the shorter male’s shoulder, then nods his head over to the girl behind the desk. “Nyma, this is Keith, my younger brother. He’s here to try to pass Allura’s test.”

 

The girl—Nyma—popped the gum she was chewing, slowly looking Keith up and done as she tried to analyze him by a simple glance. Keith stiffened up, not comfortable with people so openly staring at him and judging him. Nyma smiles crookedly as she leans back in her chair, propping her feet on the counter. “Good luck Keith—Allura can be quite tough. Hope you get the job.”

 

Keith swallows and nods, mumbling softly. “Uh, thanks.” Shiro, blessed be unto him, sensed Keith’s discomfort and drapes an arm around his shoulder, starting to walk backwards further in the gym. “We’ll talk to you later—and get your feet off the counter before Coran or Alfor see you—you don’t wanna get in trouble again!” Nyma instantly sits up, firmly placing her feet on the floor before mumbling a yessir, starting to busy herself with paperwork.

 

Keith exhales heavily once they were out of earshot, starting to relax once they were away from the receptionist. He glances around at the floor, mumbling softly as he addresses Shiro. “Thanks…if I worked here I wouldn’t have to see her much, right?”

 

Shiro raises an eyebrow as he looks over at his younger brother, smiling crookedly as he drops his arm from Keith’s shoulder. “Why? Scared she’ll get a crush on you? Not every girl you meet is gonna instantly fall in love with you, y’know.”

 

Keith furrows his brows, knowing that his brother was right in away. “You say that—but almost every girl I’ve gotten to known has—except for Allura—and look how that turned out.” He groans, tilting his head back to look up at the ceiling, trying to calm down his nerves about seeing Allura again. “You sure this is going to work out?”

 

“Of course it will—you’ll survive the class, get hired, and get to work with your big brother who you’ve idolized since you were a kid.” Shiro chuckles, avoiding the punch that Keith meant to land on his arm. “I’m kidding—but seriously, don’t worry about it.” He opens the door, motioning for Keith to walk into the room first. “Go on.”

 

Keith pauses, glancing at Shiro one more time before taking a deep breath and stepping into the dance studio. There were already people inside stretching—a surprising lack of middle aged women trying to be ‘hip’—much to Keith’s relief. There were mostly girls in the class—there were only two other guys in the room besides Shiro and Keith, making him a bit more relaxed at the fact they weren’t the only guys there. The bane of Keith’s existence was up at the front of the room by the mirror wall chatting with one of the guys, her long silver hair tied up neatly in a bun. The form fitting pink tank top stopping short of hitting her black workout capris.

 

 Keith was about to make his way over to talk to Allura when his eyes land on the guy that she was talking to. He stops in his tracks, eyes widen as he looks the guy over. Holy. Shit. The brunet was tall—maybe an inch or two taller than Keith. He had broad shoulders that lead down to narrow hips. The bright blue crop top he was wearing hardly hiding how toned his torso was, and his tight black booty shorts barely covered his ass—was that even legal? And holy shit his legs went on for DAYS they were so long. When the guy bent down to stretch out his back Keith had to bite back the squeak that wanted to escape as the fabric pulled against his round ass.

 

Shiro, knowing his adopted brother all too well, leans over to whisper in Keith’s ear, his voice light and teasing. “That’s Lance—he’s training to be a Zumba Instructor under Allura. If you got hired here, you could stare at his ass all day.”

 

Keith’s face instantly turns red as he whacks Shiro with his gym bag, yelling for him to shut up at the top of his lungs. Shiro just laughed as everyone in the room looked over at them—including Allura and Lance. Shit. Keith stares at Allura and Lance like a deer caught in the headlights, hearing his heart pounding in his ears. Allura smiles, motioning for Lance to follow her as she walks towards the pair of brothers. Fucking Shit. In less time than he thought Allura and Lance were standing in front of them, a cocky smile on Allura’s face and a flirtatious one on Lance’s—damn their long legs. “Why Keith, so glad to see you again. Think you can survive one of our classes?” Allura asks, crossing her arms and popping one of her hips out to the side.

 

Keith reigns in and puts a composed face as he addresses Allura, his eyebrows scrunching up slightly. “I’ve run 5K marathons before—a thirty-minute class will seem like nothing.” He huffs, crossing his arms across his chest, mimicking Allura. 

 

Allura rolls her eyes, then bumps her hip against Lance’s, who was resting his arm on her shoulder. “Lance is leading some of his dances today—so good luck.” She coos, then waves at the pair as she takes Lance’s arm to drag him towards the front. “Five more minutes ‘til class starts!”

 

Keith shoots a glare at the back of her head, wishing he had mind control powers so that he could mess up the perfect bun on top of her head. He sighs, then decides to stretch his arms a bit as he and Shiro head towards the back of the room. “Lets make this quick.” He grumbles, then stops to tie his hair up in a ponytail before they started.

 

Shiro reaches over and claps a hand on Keith’s back, shooting a sympathetic look over at him. “I’m just gonna go ahead and apologize now. Lance is known for very … intense dances.”

 

Keith raises his eyebrow up higher, brushing Shiro’s hand off and smirking over at his brother. “How bad can it be? It’s just dancing.” His brother shakes his head, mumbling something about warning him as the[ first song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXv3Ff-WfI) beings to play, signaling the start of class.

 

 Everyone quickly lines up into rows, with Lance and Allura standing front and center facing the mirror. The instructors move almost in sync, swaying back and forth in time with the music—the main difference being Lance moving his arms slightly with his body. After two or so more beats they move their arms, alternating which one was being held up as they continue to sway their hips to the beat. Keith was keeping up so far—only a beat or so behind—but most people were off slightly anyway so it was fine.

 

Lance and Allura both pause, then look over at each other and grin before moving onto the next sequence, stepping back and forth as they swing their arms in front of them and form a fist crossing their body. Really, these moves were so simple a child could probably do that—which meant Keith could survive the class. He smirks, starting to gain more confidence as he does his best to follow along—even able to punch the air when the move changed slightly for the next set. When the music changes the move changes again, everyone leaning back and bringing both their arms around in a rounded motion, before standing back up straight and repeating it again. The sequence starts from the beginning, repeating all the same moves as before—if he knew it was this repetitive he wouldn’t have worried so much. But then there’s a new move they haven’t done yet. Allura and Lance (along with over half the class) easily start swaying their whole body and arms back and forth, then slowly reaches one arm up, then alternate to the other side. Keith did falter here—though if anyone asked why he would insist that it wasn’t because he was stuck staring at Lance’s calm expression in the mirror—or admiring how effortlessly he moved his body to the music. Nope not at all.

 

Keith didn’t want to admit that when Lance started swaying his hips to the beat he thought he died and gone to heaven—daydreaming about another situation where those hips would come in handy before snapping back to reality and trying to catch up with the dance, deciding to stare at Allura for the rest of class so he wouldn’t get distracted. He struggled to stay on beat when the confusing step combo came into play, but he was starting to get the hang of it by the time the next move came. Which…. had to be more shimmying. He awkwardly tries to move his hips and shoulders like Allura, but it was choppy and awkward looking. Thankfully when that monstrosity was over they went back to steps that he actually knew. Towards the end there was another move change, but it was just stepping back and forth and clapping their hands above their hands, which was simple enough. Then afterwards it was the first two moves they learned before the song ended, Lance and Allura each striking their own pose as the song ends.

 

Keith takes in a deep breath, not wanting to admit that he was a little winded after only one song, but not wanting to appear that he was for the sake of his pride. He tightens his hair tie as he glances over at Shiro, mouthing the words ‘piece of cake’ as Allura turns around and smiles at the class. “Okay! Everyone all warmed up?” There was a chorus of ‘yeah’s from the class and Allura claps her hands. “Wonderful! Now, you all know this is a Lance Day, so I hope you all brought plenty of water with you.” There were a few more comments agreeing with Laura and she smiles, then moves so that Lance was now standing more towards the center of the room.

 

Lance’s smile is somehow brighter than Allura’s and he doesn’t even seem to be tired at all. “Alright guys! I hope you’re ready to make some Milkshakes and get cell service!” A few of the girls cheered and Lance shoots one of them a wink and double pistols, then goes to put on the playlist for his portion of the class. “Now, if you need a break at any time during the class feel free—we don’t want anyone passing out again.” He hums, leaning over the counter as he fiddles with his playlist. “Lets start with one to build up the energy, sound good?” He got a few positive responses before starting the music, a pop song starting to play. One of the guys groaned as he recognized [the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOkBrurM9G4) and Lance chuckles. “C’mon guys! You’re worth it!”

 

Lance dashes back to his position, standing next to Allura so there was always one instructor in view of everyone. They both start swaying a bit to the music before Lance is talking again. “Okay, throwing it down in 3, 2, 1, Go!” Then on cue Allura and Lance start bouncing to the beat, lifting their arms up just to thrown them down in front of them, they do this twice before switching to reaching out and pulling their hands towards their chest. Keith was in deep shit—the song literally just started and he was already confused and behind. He tries his best to mimic Lance and Allura, but felt like he was just awkwardly flailing his arms. Lance kept calling out the moves right before he and Allura did them, but since he didn’t know the moves at all it didn’t help him much. He glances over at Shiro, hoping that he was failing as much as him, but was shocked to see his brother easily moving his body along to the music. Keith makes a mental note to ask his brother about that later.

 

“Right Arm!” Lance calls, shooting his right arm out just to pull it back and moving it behind his hip as his left arm moves forward along with the beat. “Kick your right leg up!” He calls, lifting his leg up with a pop before setting it down and switching to his left. Keith had just started getting the motion down when Lance called out “Faster!” As the pace suddenly increased, Keith curses under his breath, trying to stay in time but falling behind quickly. Honestly Keith wasn’t even keeping track of what their arms were supposed to be doing. When Lance called out for everyone to turn towards the right he nearly fell over with how fast he tried to turn. Before he knew it, they were on the next move as Lance shouts out “Punch left arm!” What the hell? He watched Lance and Allura punch first the left arm, followed by the right before rolling their bodies to the beat of the music. Fuck—Lance shouldn’t be allowed to do body rolls—he was too good at those.

 

Keith lets out a sigh of relief when they finally finished with the body rolls—which seemed like a lifetime to Keith, and was almost able to do the next move. He closely watches as Lance calls out, “Reach and knee and whip!” He watches as Lance reaches both his hands to the side with his hip popped out, then reaches down to his knee as he moves the other in a circle before shifting his weight over as he rolls his head in a hair-flipping motion. The last part seemed ridiculous since his hair was short but he wasn’t going to argue. The repeat the move on the other side, then back to the first before they start running in place—except for Lance. He was running around the room and in between students. He’d stop every once in a while to sway his hips and run his hands up his body as Allura did from the front of the classroom. Occasionally he’d stop in front of a student facing them and making direct eye contact, which usually got a giggle or smile out of them. Suddenly Keith finds himself staring directly into bright blue eyes full of mirth, stuttering in his dance moves as Lance sings the lyrics to him. “Uh huh, show me what ya’ got, now come and make it worth my while~” And then suddenly he was gone, shuffling backwards towards the front of the studio, pausing when appropriate to do the ‘reach’ portion of the dance, as well as the ‘throw’. Once Lance reached the front of the class again he remained there for the rest of the song. Somehow there’s more body rolls thrown in to the dance, then there’s more of the knee part of the dance, then it just repeated from there. Again, Lance and Allura each struck a pose, each smiling widely as they glance at the class.

 

Keith was already sweating and panting at the end of the second song. He swallows and looks over at Shiro, asking meekly. “So…how long is this class again?”

 

Shiro takes in a deep breath, straightening his back before shaking his leg out. “A half hour.” Keith looks over at the clock, noticing that only six minutes have gone by and he lets out a loud groan, knowing this would be the longest half hour of his life.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith doesn’t know how he did it, but he somehow managed to make it through the class without passing out or taking a break. The moment that the cool down song was over Keith dashed over to his gym bag to get his water bottle, falling on his knees as he chugs the cool, refreshing water his dry throat desperately craved. Shiro walks over more gracefully to his bag and calmly sips his water, looking over at his brother with concern on his face. “Hey, you okay?”

 

Keith pants heavily as he looks up at his brother, more exhausted from the thirty-minute class than he expected to be. “H-How the hell is that dancing?” He pants out, leaning back against the wall. They did four more songs and the cool down song before they finally ended for the day—and somehow Allura and Lance barely broke a sweat. “Are they demons? I always knew Allura was evil so being a demon isn’t that strange.”

 

Shiro smirks as he leans against the wall, looking over at Allura telling Lance the pointers he had to work on for the next class. “Y’know, they usually do three classes a day—but sometimes they do five or six.”

 

Keith chokes on the water that he was sipping and coughs to clear his lungs of water, eyes wide as he looks up at his brother. “What?! How aren’t they dead?!” He stares at Lance and Allura, then starts seriously considering adding Zumba to his workout routine if they had enough stamina to teach six intense classes a day. How are they still alive?

 

Everyone clears out of the room besides Shiro, Keith, Allura, and Lance. Once they have the room to themselves Allura and Lance walk over to the pair of brothers, both sporting cocky grins on their face. “So, how was your first class?” Allura asks, knowing full well that Keith’s legs must feel like jello with how much he was struggling to keep up after the second song ended.

 

Keith tries to shoot a glare up at Allura for being so cocky, but he was so tired that he couldn’t even bother. He lets out a deep breath, getting the towel out of his gym bag and wiping the sweat off his face. “I’ll admit it. Zumba actually can be a good workout.”

 

Allura smiles widely, then reaches out a hand to help pull Keith up onto his feet. “I’m glad you finally came around. So, can you start Thursday?”

 

Keith blinks, then smiles with relief that he was able to get the job. He shakes her hand, ignoring the ‘I told you so’ Shiro was sending him. “Thursday works just fine with me.”

 

“Woah woah woah woah wait—what?!” Lance shrieks, standing up straighter as he looks at Allura. “You’re not seriously hiring Keith—my rival since college—to work here, right? This is just some funky dream or an elaborate prank!”

 

Allura reaches over and smacks Lance’s arm, causing him to cry out and cover his arm with his hand. “Yes Lance, I’m serious. He graduated top of his class and is certified as a personal trainer—which we’re short on since Thrax left.”

 

Keith blinks, confused by Lance’s outburst. He could have sworn that he and Lance were strangers—he certainly didn’t remember him at all. “Wait, do I know you?” Obviously, that was the wrong thing to say, since Lance scoffed at him and looked like he just offended his mother.

 

“Do you know me—remember? During college?” Keith blinks, obviously not remembering. Lance frowns some, walking closer to Keith. “We had all the same Phys-ed classes together?”  When Keith still didn’t seem to remember he pouts, crossing his arms over his chest and popping his hip out. “Y’know, Lance and Keith—neck and neck—we competed for top of the class?”

 

Suddenly a lightbulb goes off in Keith’s head as he suddenly remembers Lance—the annoying guy from college. Damn it—why did he have to get hot? “Oh, right. Lance, the class clown.” Well Lance didn’t like that at all because he huffed and stormed out of the room after retrieving his gym bag, yelling something about being in the employee lounge to Allura. He blinks at where Lance just left the room, then curiously looks over at Allura. “Is he okay…?”

 

Allura lets out a sigh, taking her hair out of the bun and letting it swing down into a ponytail. “He will be, let’s let him cool off. Now, let’s start filling out your paperwork so you can start work, okay?” Keith nods, picking up his bag as Shiro gives him a thumbs up as he leaves with Allura. He keeps getting distracted by Lance, wondering how such an annoying guy from college could turn into—well, sex on legs. But he kept having to answer Allura which distracted from his thoughts. “So, we expect you to have at least two personal training sessions in your first two weeks when you start—as you get more experience and more popular we’ll start expecting more. You’ll also be expected to be in the building from 7am until 5pm—just in case you get a walk in. When you don’t have a client you’re free to use the gym to keep fit—or even attend classes.” She nudges Keith’s side, smirking knowingly down at him. “You should take Zumba—Lance and I work well together and it’ll help your stamina.” Allura continues ranting on about the job specifications but Keith starts to tune them out, nodding as they head into her office to start the paperwork.

 

After what seems like two hours of filling out paperwork, Keith finishes up with Allura and sighs happily, slumping down in his seat and closing his eyes. “Paperwork is the worst.” He croaks out, his head hurting from staring at such tiny print for so long.

 

Allura hums in agreement, putting Keith’s paperwork in a folder and filing it away. “It is—but it’s necessary. Usually Coran deals with all the paperwork—but I figured since you’re a friend I’d do it myself.” She smiles, standing up and stretching. “I should go check on Lance. He had to teach our second class since we were in here filling out paperwork, and I need to make sure that our students are still alive.” 

 

Keith bites his bottom lip, glancing up at Allura as he stands up, making sure to grab his bag. “Do you know why Lance seems to hate me so much? I mean—during the class he was so fun and energetic and he came up and danced with me? But he was so rude afterwards.” He huffs, taking his hair tie out and shaking out his hair. “Do you know why?”

 

Allura smiles mischievously, waving a finger back and forth at the confused male. “Let’s just say, what you both think is anger is actually something else.” Keith furrows his brow, about to ask what she meant as Allura dashes from the room. He sighs heavily, knowing he wasn’t going to get anything out of her today. He heads out towards the front, deciding to head home to rest up before work, and sort out his conflicting feelings for Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you guys are curious, here are links to youtube videos that both of the dance sequences described (because I suck at describing dancing holy shit) 
> 
> Warm Up Song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXv3Ff-WfI  
> Lance’s first song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOkBrurM9G4


	2. New Coworkers and Routines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith starts working at the Voltron Gym and still doesn't know what Lance's problem is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I meant to get this out before the New Year but life got in the way--what with work and driver's ed and classes starting up again. But the new chapter is out and I hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> WARNING: During the second video there are strobe-light effects used 3-4 times during the video

Keith was up at 4 am. He hated getting up early, but no matter how much he tried he could never sleep in. The only benefit to this was that he could fit in his normal workout routine and still have a whole day to do things. He changes out of his pjs into his workout clothes, a simple red tank top and black running shorts, before stuffing his apartment key into his shoe and exiting his apartment. He puts his hair up in a small ponytail as he heads down the stairs of his apartment and outside into the crisp morning air. He shivers a bit, making a note to get some more running pants after he pays his bills—the first few minutes of running in the winter were always a pain. Luckily it was technically fall so it would warm up once the sun rose.

 

Keith started running his usual route through downtown and the park that eventually circled around to his apartment, starting out at a light jog for his body to warm up. He looks around the still-sleeping city, finding peace in solitude. Lights were out in houses and apartments; most stores weren’t even open at this hour. It made Keith feel like he was the only person left in the world—he could empty his mind and focus on moving his legs faster, the only thought in his mind to regulate his breathing as he speeds down the empty sidewalk. He glances around occasionally, lights starting to flicker on as people started getting ready for work. He looks back ahead and turns into the park entrance to continue his solitary run, picking up the pace as he enters the mostly-empty park as the sun rose over the horizon. The only people he sees in the park are a few runners like him, and very sleepy people walking their dogs early in the morning, but he doesn’t see them for long before he’s running past them, pushing himself a bit harder as he nears the final stretch before the park ends.

 

 Once he gets out of the park and back in his neighborhood he slows back down to cool off, breathing heavily and ignoring the dull ache of his legs. He gets his breathing back in order as he starts to think, debating if he should add in a few more blocks so that he could build up more endurance. Blue eyes and a cocky smile flash across his thoughts and he nearly stops, frowning to himself as he wonders why he was thinking of Lance. Now that he remembered the (debatably gorgeous) Cuban from college he realized why he forgot him—he was the most annoying guy he’s ever met. God, that guy got on his nerves—he always talked during class, couldn’t sit still, and flirted with any girl who even looked his way. He huffs as he stops at the stairs of his building so he could stretch, thinking that he was going to have to put up with him at his new job. The guy stormed out of the room the moment he realized that Keith didn’t remember him. That wasn’t a normal reaction to some guy who just happened to share a few classes with. Why did Lance have such a stick up his ass?

 

“Looks like I got here just in time.” Keith whips his head up to stare at his brother, wondering when he walked up to him. Shino chuckles, holding out a cup of coffee to his adoptive brother before leaning against the side of the building. “Just got back from your run?”

 

Keith takes the cup offered to him and nods, standing up straight and letting out a deep breath before nodding. “Yeah. What are you doing here so early?” He takes a sip of the warm coffee, closing his eyes and sighing happily, thankful for the caffeine to help wake him up.

 

Shiro sips his coffee briefly, then shoots a grin over at his little brother before nudging his leg with his foot. “It’s your first day at work—I want to make sure you’re prepared like a good older brother.”

 

Keith furrows his brows as he stares at his brother, not believing him one bit. “Bullshit—you just want to make sure that I actually go.”

 

“Was I that obvious?” He smiles crookedly, then pushes off the wall before patting Keith’s shoulder. “I just wanted to make sure you were gonna be okay on your first day.”

 

“Shiro, I’m not a child anymore. I can get to work by myself.” Keith rests his hand on his hip, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Is that why you’re really here?”

 

Shiro lets out a deep breath, holding his hand up defensively. “Okay—so what happened with Lance at the gym might have persuaded me to come.” Keith tenses up at the mention of Lance, then starts heading up the stairs to his apartment, frowning when Shiro starts following him.

 

“What about Lance?” He tries to change the topic, climbing the stairs to his apartment. Shiro follows his brother, sipping his coffee as they start climbing up the stairs of the building.

 

“Y’know—his little outburst when Allura said you had the job. I haven’t seen him that upset in a long time.” Shiro comments, leaning next to Keith’s apartment door as the other digs his key out of his sock. “Did something happen when you guys had class together?”

 

Keith furrows his brows as he glares up at Shiro, retrieving his apartment key and unlocking his apartment. “I don’t know—I didn’t remember the guy. He’s the one with a problem, not me.” He retrieves his coffee from its resting place on the ground, then heads into his apartment so he could start getting ready for work.

 

Shiro sighs and shakes his head. “Lance doesn’t get upset for no reason. There must have been something you did.” Keith scoffs as he heads into his bathroom to take a quick shower, calling back to his brother.

 

“I didn’t do anything!” He calls back, practically hearing his brother roll his eyes as he pops into the shower to wash the sweat off from his morning run. He could hear his brother standing outside the bathroom door over the sound of the shower, practically picturing Shiro rolling his eyes at him.

 

Shiro leans against the bathroom door and crosses his arms over his chest. “Yeah yeah—just finish getting ready so we can go—you don’t want to be late for your first day on the job.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith and Shiro arrived at work together, Shiro helping Keith bypass Nyma’s probing questions and getting Keith his employee ID. Keith lets out a deep breath, relieved that he got to avoid the tall blonde. He didn’t like the way that she looked at him. Shiro smiles crookedly, reaching over and ruffling Keith’s hair as he leads them back to the employee lounge.

 

Keith frowns and bats his brother’s hand away, then reaches up and tries to fix his hair. “Can you quit it?”

 

Shiro laughs, patting Keith on the back as they head into the employee lounge. “Not at all.” Shiro heads over to his locker and puts his bag inside, nodding with his head over to the locker at the end of the row. “That locker is yours, by the way. Coran already labeled it for you.”

 

Keith grunts and nods, walking over and opening his locker to put his gym bag inside. The employee lounge opens again and two people Keith doesn’t know walk in—a big guy with a headband wrapped around his forehead, and a small wiry guy (or was it a girl? Keith couldn’t tell from where he was). The big guy looks around the locker room and smiles brighter than the sun itself as he spots Shiro. “Hey Shiro! How’s it going?”

 

Shiro smiles crookedly as he slips on his workout shoes for the day. “It’s going good—I’ve been showing Keith around.” At the mention of Keith Hunk quickly turns, his eyes wide as he makes his way over to Keith. Keith tenses, leaning back towards the locker.

 

“Oh man—sorry dude, I didn’t see you there. I’m Hunk!” Hunk smiles widely as he holds a hand out to Keith. “The first day can be a little rough, so if you have any questions just let us know—Pidge might give you some trouble but honestly they’re not that bad.” Keith hesitantly reached out and shook Hunk’s hand. “Uh….thanks?”

 

Hunk grins, then heads towards his locker and tapping the other person on the shoulder as he passes. “This person is Pidge—they do the tech work around here.” Pidge waves, heading towards their locker to shove some of their things inside haphazardly.

 

“I’m Pidge, good with tech, they/them pronouns, and the moon landing was faked.” Pidge finds what they were looking for in their bag, pulling out a camera and some sound equipment. “Now I gotta go before—“

 

The door to the employee lounge slams open hard enough to bang into the wall as another figure steps in—this one Keith recognizes. “Never fear, Lance is here!” Lance beams as he slides his sunglasses up to rest on top of his head, scanning the room with a giant smile on his face. Pidge groans loudly and slams their head into their locker, missing the excited look sliding off Lance’s face as his eyes land on Keith.

 

Keith tenses slightly under Lance’s intense gaze, then notes how the Cuban stomps over towards Keith. He shoots Keith a glare before opening the locker next to Keith’s, grumbling under his breath. “Keith, decided to actually show up?”

 

Keith frowns at the taller male, raising an eyebrow as he shuts his locker. “Why wouldn’t I show up?”

 

Lance frowns, unpacking the backpack he carried in as he sets a bunch of different bottles and small bags in his locker. “Because you could barely walk when you left last week.” He shot a cocky smile over at the shorter male, setting his backpack down.

 

Keith frowns, letting out a frustrated huff. “Yeah—keep telling yourself that.” Shiro cleared his throat from the other side of the room—Keith didn’t have to see his face to know what it looked like; a mix of disappointment, pity, and just enough puppy dog eyes to convey what he was thinking. _Try to get along._ Keith sighs heavily, about to apologize and try to make amends before Lance spoke again.

 

“Oh please—you couldn’t survive another one of my classes.” Lance huffs, sliding off his baggy sweatshirt to reveal another crop top similar to the one he wore when Keith first saw him, except this one was black with the phrase ‘I’m a little bi-furious’ in white print except for the ‘bi’ part. Keith tried to keep his eyes from drifting down Lance’s form but fails miserably. _Damn gay thoughts_.

 

Keith shakes the thought away, shifting his gaze from ogling to glaring at the other male. He crosses his arms over his chest, popping his hip out to the side and sneers. “Wanna bet? If I survive another class, you have to tell me what the fuck your problem with me is.”

 

Lance tenses, then looks away as he debates Keith’s proposition, if Keith knew any better Lance seemed to almost look…..nervous? Lance shoots Keith a smirk and bumps his hip against Keith’s with enough force to knock Keith back a bit. Nope, still just as cocky as ever. “Alright—but if you can hardly stand after class today you have to star in one of my videos.”

 

Keith blinks, tilting his head in confusion. “What?”

 

Lance smirks crookedly, stepping closer into Keith’s personal space. Keith tries to will the flush he’s sure is trying to spread across his face when the lack of space between them is more obvious. “Be in one of my videos—as a backup dancer.” 

 

Keith tilts his head up to meet Lance’s eyes, trying to shoot him the most intimidating glare that he could. “Deal.”

 

Lance smirks, turning to face his locker and slides his sweatpants off to reveal skin-tight running pants.  “See you then mullet.” Keith stands still, his eyes traveling up and down Lance’s lithe body. How could someone so annoying be so hot? It wasn’t fair damn it. This time Lance noticed his excessive staring, turning to look at him and manages to smirk wider. “Like what you see?”

 

Keith blushes and looks away, obviously embarrassed at being caught. “Sh-Shut up!” He turns and storms toward the exit, not bothering to turn around when Shiro called after him.

 

Pidge was starting to sneak out after Keith before Lance grabs onto their shoulder. “Oh, no you don’t! We need to talk ideas for the next video!” Keith hears a loud groan from Pidge as he walks out of the door, suddenly feeling sorry they got caught by Lance.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Despite how his morning started, Keith was having a good first day at work. He had a few walk-in clients that he gave a few workout tips to, though in between training sessions he mainly helped keep the weight room and cardio room clean and organized. When he was really bored, he’d walk around and talk to a few of the other employee. So far Pidge was his favorite. He tried to keep himself busy—both to be a good employee and to distract himself from Lance.

 

Keith was taking a sip from his water bottle, leaning against a railing that ran along the main hallway. He was waiting for Nyma to come back from her break to check if any of the people he helped today decided to add him as their personal trainer. He feels a tap on his shoulder and looks over, jumping as he finds Lance’s face right next to his. “Jesus—Lance!” 

 

“You haven’t come to any classes today. You giving up on our bet?” Lance smirks, resting one of his hands next to Keith’s head and leaning in close. “If you don’t get to a class tonight you’ll be forfeiting.”

 

Keith leans back against the wall, trying to focus on the pain of the railing digging into his back instead of how close Lance was standing next to him. Why do the annoying guys have to be attractive? He rolls his eyes and looks away. “I was gonna show up to the next one—some of us have been doing real work you know.”

 

Lance scoffs and leans back, resting a hand on his chest as his eyes go comically wide. “How dare you—I’ve been working twice as hard as you mullet!” Lance rests his hands on his hips, his weight shifted onto his left foot to pop his hip out. “I only have one more class scheduled today—it starts in 5 minutes and if you’re not there you lose the bet.”

 

“Oh—I’ll be there—and I’ll win.” Keith smirks up at Lance, gaining a bit of confidence to lightly shoving his shoulder, effectively pushing him a few steps away. “Go to class.”

 

Lance shoots a glare at Keith before backing away. “You better be there mullet!” He huffs, tilting his chin up before turning around and walking off towards the Zumba classroom.

 

Keith sighs and rests his head against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to calm down. How can Lance get under his skin so easily? He tried to keep a level head—sure he had anger issues growing up but he thought he worked through them. But Lance…. he was a piece of work. It’s almost like he knew exactly how to push his buttons so he lashed out. Seeing as Nyma wouldn’t be back before the last Zumba class of the day, he decides to just wait until tomorrow to ask his question. The last thing he wanted was Lance getting smug with him because he forgot to show up. He pushes himself off the railing and heads towards the Zumba room, figuring that Allura would be there and want to talk to him about his first day before the class started.  

 

The classroom was just as he remembered it from a week ago—including Lance and Allura stretching in the front of the classroom. Keith tried to keep his eyes from wondering down to Lance’s ass as he stretched down to touch his toes. He raises an eyebrow, wondering how he could possibly be that flexible. Did Lance even have a spine? Or ribs? Keith’s eyes lock with Lance’s in the mirror’s reflection and that damn smirk was back on Lance’s face. God, Keith hated that smirk, lighting up his perfect face and causing his eyes to crinkle a little at the edges. _Not now gay thoughts._

 Lance gets up from stretching and quickly walks over towards Keith, grabbing onto his arm and dragging him towards the front. Keith’s eyes widen as he leans back. “Lance—“

 

“Nope—you’re not hiding in the back like last time. You gotta be front and center.” Lance stops when Keith was in the front row, smiling at him before waving as he heads to the very front next to Allura. Lance leans over and whispers in Allura’s ear, then stickers as they both glance back at Keith. Keith furrows his brow and flips them off, causing Allura to laugh louder and heads towards the speakers.

 

“Alright everyone! We’re gonna do an old warmup first, then I’ll teach you guys a new dance before turning it over to Lance.” Allura smiles, reaching up and tying her hair up to keep it away from her neck as they worked out. Lance gives everyone a thumb up and a smile before facing the front when the music starts. Keith was thanking any god that was out there that the warm-up dance they did today was also the one that they did last time. While he still fumbled through a few of the moves, Keith could honestly say that he was doing better than last time. He tried to keep his eyes on Allura, knowing that if he looked at Lance he would fumble and loose his place. Before he knows it, the warm up song is over and he’s barely out of breath. He locks eyes with Lance in the mirror, shooting him a cocky grin as Allura starts the next song. When the first note plays Keith groans, recognizing the sound of the [next song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns7rorVGtHA).

 

Allura smiles widely as she gets back in her spot, looking over her shoulder to address the class. “Time to move what ya’ dad gave ya!” Allura and Lance jumps around the room to the beat of the music for the first few seconds. Keith and a portion of the other students just awkwardly stand there. Lance stops right in front of Keith and winks at him before turning around to face the front. Lance and Allura dance perfectly in sync, stepping out with their left foot three times and crossing their arms in front of them. After the third step, they step back to the center, clapping their hands before repeating the move on the right side as well. They repeat the sequence again, this time crunching their abs with each step.

 

Keith, surprisingly, is keeping up with the dance so far, trying to mimic Lance and Allura perfectly—he’d be damned if he let Lance win. That guy was cocky enough as is—he’d hate to see Lance get worse. Plus, he wanted to know why Lance was being so hot and cold with him. His eyes kept wondering over to Lance, memorized by how happy and full of life he appeared as he danced. He swings his arms up and down, alternating which heel he was tapping in front of him, matching the beat of the music perfectly. They repeat the move four times before moving onto the next move, Keith trying to figure out how to make his knees move in and out the same way that Lance could do with ease. He fumbled with his arms, missing the time that Lance moved his arms the same way twice before switching sides. Keith mumbles a curse under his breath as he tries to get back in sync, starting to get frustrated. He managed to get back in sync when they waved their arms in across before shooting up above their head, bouncing slightly with the wave and lifting their knee up when they crossed their arms over their chest. They move the wave to the other side, Keith’s confidence starting to build back up as he gets back in sync.

 

Keith curses as they do the funky knee part of the dance again, barely improving since the first time. When they repeat the wave part he manages to get back in sync, ignoring the cocky grin he could spot on Lance’s face in his reflection. When the beat changes, Allura and Lance reach towards the left twice, stepping with each reach before turning around, continuing to reach towards the left twice before repeating the sequence to the right. Keith was doing fine until they turned around, flushing as he makes direct eye contact with Lance who just winks at him. Keith quickly turns around, trying to will the blush off his face as he does his best to follow along, turning a bit to quickly when they repeated the move again.

 

When Lance and Allura face forward again, Keith lets out a heavy sigh of relief, glad to not feel Lance staring at him again. He was able to mimic the arm movements, swinging one arm in front of him as he leans back and forth with the beat. They do that twice before moving to the other side, Keith starting to get into the dance. There’s another move change, this time involving crossing their arms one at a time in front of them, stomping their feet side to side a few times.

 

Keith glances over at Allura, noticing the subtle differences in how she danced compared to Lance. While Lance over-exaggerates his arms—especially if they cross them in front of him—Allura had a gentler flow to her arm movements. However, moves that involved stomping were completely different—Allura stomped her feet as if she was killing a bug, while Lance just gently tapped his foot on the ground. When Lance and Allura turned sideways, Allura places her hands on her hips and Lance placed one hand on the back of his head, cocking his hip out and placing his free hand on his hip. Allura’s pose was strong and commanding, while Lance’s was obviously more open and flirty. If Keith looked close enough, he could practically see Lance glowing.

 

Lance moves his arms up and down, alternating which arm was up along with jumping back and forth from foot to foot. After doing that three times, he faces the front and does two crunches before he transitions to the arm-crossing move that they did earlier, then repeats the sequence on the other side. After they repeat the sequence, they face the left and swing their left leg back and forth like a pendulum, moving their arm the opposite way to keep their balance. Keith struggled to move as fast as Allura and Lance, furrowing his brows as he tries to move his leg faster. Allura and Lance switch to the other side, Allura glancing over her shoulder to see how everyone was doing. “You guys alright?” The class responds with a unanimous cheer of ‘yes’.

 

After the first chorus, the rest of the dance is easier, mainly repeating moves they already did. Keith was starting to (finally) get a hang of the funky-knee part of the dance, but kept getting distracted by Lance over-exaggerating his arm movements, no longer concerned on being similar to Allura since they ran through the moves before. It wasn’t until the chorus ran through again that the moves changed, this time Lance and Allura jumping around the room and in between the students. Lance jumps right up to Keith and wiggles his eyebrows, grabbing his hands and making Keith spin around once before going to interact with other students. Keith blushes and runs a hand down his face, grumbling under his breath. “He’s gonna kill me…”

 

Before Keith knows it Lance and Allura are back at the front of the room, stepping their feet and gradually getting faster as the music speeds up. Keith was able to keep up, since when he was in soccer they had a similar agility exercise. After that, they do the leg-pendulum move again, before ending the song by facing forward, and kicking one leg out to the side, then jumps to the other leg a few times before the song ends. Keith lets out a deep breath, starting to get out of breath. He reaches up and ties his hair up in a ponytail to help him cool off. He glanced up just in time to catch Lance staring at him, unable to read the expression on his face before Lance is turning away and heading towards the stereo.

 

“Okay! So, we’re gonna go kinda easy—there’s no new songs and the first one is a classic. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not gonna get a workout!” Lance grins as he puts on [another song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-VQtVajOW0) that Keith recognizes. The sound of Lady GaGa filling the room. Keith shoots a confident smirk at Lance, wondering how he expected to win when they’ve almost done all the dances that Keith vaguely knew. This was gonna be a piece of cake.

 

Lance goes back to his spot and quickly rolls his neck, calling out over his shoulder. “Let’s get some cell service guys!” Lance slowly rocks his hips back and forth with the music, slowly crossing his arms before throwing them out to the side. He mouths along with the lyrics, then looks at everyone’s reflection and calls out. “Faster!” If Keith wasn’t expecting the tempo change, he would have been very lost and behind. He tries to sway his hips with the music, but was distracted by how Lance effortlessly moved his body—especially his hips. Seriously his hips should be illegal. Keith almost missed the next transaction, just barely jumping forward in time not to get smacked by the people in the second row, waving his hands in front of him before pulling them back by his face. They do that twice before jumping back from one foot to the other as they wave their hands slightly. Keith glances over at Allura as they transition to swaying their hips as they take two steps forward, whip their hair, then steps two more times to return to their original spot.

 

“Faster!” Keith matched each of Lance’s steps when the tempo speeds up again, keeping his eyes trained above Lance’s shoulders so he wouldn’t be distracted by those sinful hips. After repeating the sped-up version again, Keith couldn’t help but let his eyes wonder down Lance’s body as the Cuban turns to the side and does a few rapid crunches, stepping in a half-circle to face the other side. He almost missed the finger-phone Lance was holding to his face before he swings his ‘phone’ around and slams it onto his other hand to imitate. “End the call!” Lance then repeats the move on the opposite side, making eye contact with Keith in the mirror again as he makes the hang-up motion again. Keith winces, feeling like Lance was implying that he was hanging up on Keith. They repeat the move again, and afterwards face forward.

 

Keith takes a deep breath as they move on, mimicking answering the phone and throwing it away on both sides before crossing his arms in front of his face twice and throwing the phones down towards the floor. They do that move four times, Lance mouthing the lyrics as they dance to the beat. When the rap portion comes up, Lance pops his hip out and holds his fake phone to his ear, “Break time guys! Just chill!” He bounces twice before switching sides, continuing this until the portion of the song is almost over, then makes a motion like he was pounding his head and saying his hips.

 

Allura faces forward and whips her head to the side, causing her ponytail to swing around before she stands up straight. Lance lets out a deep breath and runs his hands down his body. “Alright, another breather before the song speeds up again. Make it count~” Lance and Allura start repeating the arm crossing movement from the beginning of the song to the slow tempo, gently swaying their hips back and forth. They basically repeat all the same moves from the beginning, starting with the slow versions before speeding them up for the second part.

 

Towards the end of the song there was another freestyle towards the end, and again Lance comes right up to Keith and softly sings the words, “You’re not gonna reach my telephone~”, before shimmying away and dancing around the room. Keith blinks, unsure how to handle Lance coming up and singing that line to him—what was the point? When the song ‘ends’ and plays the phone operator noise, lance dramatically falls on the ground, then rolls over onto his back, stopping in front of Keith and breathing out. “Does anyone have any service? I’m not getting anything.”

 

Keith couldn’t understand this boy.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith survived the Zumba class, able to calmly walk over to get a sip of his water bottle. His legs still felt like jelly and he was still out of breath, but he was a lot better than last time. He looks over at Lance and Allura at the front of the room, Allura giving Lance a few more pointers before she gathered her things at the front of the room. Keith sips his water before walking towards the pair, stopping right beside Lance. “I won—now why do you hate me?”

 

Allura raises an eyebrow and looks between Lance and Keith, resting a hand on her hip. “Are you two still having trouble?”

 

Lance frowns and jabs Keith’s arm with his hand, seeming to growl out. “You didn’t win and there’s no trouble. I just can’t stand Keith’s stupid face.”

 

Keith huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Allura. “He’s acting like a fucking child and it pisses me off.”

 

“You piss me off!” Lance yells, then throws his hands up in the air before grabbing his bag and starting to storm out of the room. “Forget this-I’m leaving.”

 

Keith stares at Lance’s retreating figure, wondering where this outburst came from—just a few minutes ago, he was smiling and goofing off. Without thinking, Keith jogs after Lance to catch up to him, cornering him in the hallway and standing between Lance and the employee lounge. “Lance—seriously—what’s your problem? What did I do to piss you off?” Lance crosses his arms in front of his chest and looks off to the side, letting out a huff as he tilts his chin up. Keith groans, running a hand through his sweat-covered hair. God, Lance was a pain.  “Y’know what, I don’t care if you hate me—but you can’t keep being a dick. We gotta work together and it’s only gonna get worse.”

 

Lance shifts his weight back and forth, then glances down at Keith and takes a deep breath to calm down. “I’ll be civil once you apologize for what you did.” He crosses his arms over his chest, looking up enough to gaze into Keith’s eyes. Keith wasn’t sure what emotion was on Lance’s face, but he didn’t like it.

 

Keith breathes deeply and closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he glances down at the floor. “Can’t you just tell me what I did so I can apologize?”

 

Lance presses his lips into a thin line, then brushes past Keith’s shoulder and starts walking towards the lounge again. “Nope—if you can’t remember then I’m gonna treat you like the jerk you are.”

 

Keith freezes, a sense of dread starting to sink into the pit of his stomach. What the hell did he do to Lance to drag that sort of reaction out of him?

 

He needed to find out asap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment/Kudos appreciated and criticism is accepted. Thanks for reading~ 
> 
> P.S.: If you want to yell at me on Tumblr talk to me @mammahen


	3. Reflections and Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More bets and progress is made... or is it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: The first video has some strobe-light like effects (they're after the part that Keith watches, but a warning in case you want to watch the whole video) that happens around 2:45-ish

Keith didn’t know what to do about Lance. Obviously, whatever he did to the blue-eyed boy was enough for him to hold a grudge for at least three years. He sits down on the edge of his bed, bending down to lace up his shoes as he tries to remember the few interactions that he had with Lance. All he could really remember were a few bickering remarks here and there when they had class together—maybe he said something that offended Lance? He frowns at the thought, thinking that Lance would have brought it up then if that was the case. What was he missing? Allura’s known Lance for a while—maybe she’d know?

 

Keith reaches over to grab his phone off the bed-side table, scrolling through his conversations until he found the one that he was searching for. He taps on Allura’s name, shooting her a quick text before standing up to gather the things he needed for work.

Keith: Hey Allura, you don’t know why Lance hates me do you?

 

It wasn’t until Keith was walking down to his bike that he got a text back from Allura:

Allura: No?? All he told me was that you ‘scorned him’ Maybe Pidge or Hunk might know. They’ve been his friends longer than I have.  
Keith: Okay thanks

 

Keith groans as he reads over the text, not finding that to be all too helpful. He shoots Allura a brief reply before getting onto his bike and driving to the gym. He thinks about talking to Pidge about Lance later—since Pidge was the first co-worker he really got along with so far. _But you haven’t really talked to anyone besides Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Shiro._ Keith sighs as he parks his bike behind the gym and uses his employee id to get into the building, planning in his head on how he was gonna deal with Lance today. Part of Keith wanted to just pester Lance until he told him what he did, but another part of him (probably the part raised by Shiro) told him not to pry and hope that this all blew over.

 

When Keith walked into the employee lounge he ended up face to face with the guy that was constantly on his mind, Lance. His eyes widen as he looks up at the Cuban, then rests his hand on his hip as he smiles crookedly. “Lance—I’m surprised you’re here so early. I figured you’d be the kind of guy to show up late to work.” He teased, then pushes past Lance so that he could head to his locker.

 

Lance sputters a bit and turns to look at Keith, yelling at the back of his head. “Hey—I’m totally not! I’m usually always early.” He huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away. If Keith was looking at Lance instead of at his locker he might have seen the faint blush on the Cuban’s face. “Why are you here early anyway? Its not like you have any clients yet.”

 

Keith scowls as he hangs up his jacket, then turns over his shoulder to glare at Lance. The main reason he was here early was so Shiro couldn’t pick him up for work again—there’s nothing more embarrassing than your brother insisting on driving you to work—so Keith left early enough to avoid Shiro (he loved his brother, but there was only so much ‘have you talked to Lance’ questions he could take).  “I’m always early—better to be early than late. Why are you here early?”

 

Lance rolls his eyes, popping his hip out and resting his hands on his hips. “For your information, I’ve been doing prep for my next video. I can’t make Pidge do it all.  I needed to call in some backup dancers and schedule them to come in and learn the dance.”

 

Ah, right. Lance did mention something about a video the other day. Keith’s frown fell off his face, surprised by how much planning Lance was doing. He seemed more like a ‘just go with the flow’ kinda guy. “Oh. Didn’t you want me to be one of your backup dancers?”

 

Lance rolls his head to stretch out his neck, then tilts his head to the side and raises an eyebrow questionably at Keith. “Uh, yeah—for that bet that you totally didn’t win yesterday.”

 

“Hey—I won and you know it.” Keith huffs, then walks over to Lance once he finished unpacking his stuff. “You still owe me some answers for that.”

 

Lance tilts his head up and looks away. “Nope don’t know what you’re talking about. Never happened.” He rushes out, then turns to start heading towards the door. “Got to go.”

 

Keith reaches out and grabs Lance’s arm, furrowing his brow in frustration at the taller man in front of him. “No you don’t. You’re not running away this time.”

 

Lance groans as he tilts his head back, his brows pinched together as he leans back to look at Keith. “Dude, you obviously didn’t care enough to remember. Why do you care now?”

 

Keith pauses, then pouts a bit as he thinks over Lance’s question. Why did he care? _Because you’re stuck in my head all the time? Because I can’t stop thinking about how great your ass looks in those booty shorts and how I want to touch it?_ Keith shakes his head to clear away those thoughts, then looks up at Lance, hoping that he looked sincere. “Because I want to know so I can apologize. I was a dick in college but, surprise, I’ve grown up and matured and want to make up for past mistakes. So, can you just tell me already?”

 

Lance’s eyes widened a bit, the pissed off expression melting off his face as he gazed at Keith as he talked. He stands up straight and takes a deep breath, turning around and glancing at the wall as he talked to Keith again. “I don’t want to tell you now… _maybe_ if you don’t screw up at being a backup dancer for my video I’ll tell you, okay?”

 

Keith stares up at Lance, shocked that he just gave in so easily. “Wait really—what’s the catch?”

 

Lance shoots Keith a smirk. Shit, that wasn’t good. “Well—you’ll have to be as good—if not better—than the other backup dancer in the video, and if you aren’t you have to go out shopping with me.”

 

Keith winces a bit and bites his bottom lip, wondering if he could be better than the other backup dancers—didn’t Lance say they were professionals? Fuck, he couldn’t remember. He looks up at Lance, figuring this might be the only way he could get Lance to tell him. “Fine—but I’m not losing.”

 

Lance smirks, then bumps Keith’s hip with his own before pulling his arm away. (Why was Keith still holding his arm? Even he didn’t know.) “Alright—I only have to teach two classes today because of the shoot for the video tonight, so come to the second Zumba studio during your free times so I can teach you the dance.”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Wait—all my free times?” Oh no, he didn’t like the sound of that at all. The smirk growing on Lance’s face confirming this.

 

“Because you’re gonna need all the practice you can get before tonight.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Wait—Keith, tell me you didn’t agree to that.” Pidge tilts their head back and groans when Keith nodded, then slid off their chair onto the floor as they ran their hands down their face. “You’re an idiot.”

 

Keith frowns, looking down at them and raising an eyebrow. “How? It won’t be that bad—right?” Keith only brought it up to let Pidge know he’d be there when they shot the video tonight. He wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction.

 

Pidge let their hands fall to the ground, looking up at Keith with a deadpan expression. “You obviously haven’t seen one of his videos.” Pidge manages to pull themself up into a sitting position and reaches for their laptop, typing rapidly before pulling up a video and turning the screen towards Keith.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow as he looks at Pidge. “It can’t be worse than his classes.” He looks down as the [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX9R-07q8SI) starts to play, noting how Lance somehow looked more energetic than when he taught classes (which should be impossible). He watched the video silently, a blank look on his face as he tries to pay attention to the choreography. Honestly it was (maybe) a little easier than his classes. Although the moment that Lance and the backup dancers got down on their knees and practically _HUMPED_ the floor Keith’s jaw dropped. He could feel how hard he was blushing as he saw how Lance rolled his body—seriously, that should be against the law. He quickly slammed the laptop closed, staring wide eyed at Pidge. “Why the fuck—“

 

“Lance likes to take song requests from his subscribers, that dance was a result of that.” Pidge calmly replied, then pinched the bridge of their nose and sighed heavily. “According to Lance this dance isn’t ‘as sensual’ but I think that’s total bullcrap—have fun.”

 

Keith groaned as he faceplants into the table, his words muffled by the table. If he had to do anything like that dance he just knew he wouldn’t survive. He should just tell Shiro to take all his shit anyway since he won’t need it when he’s dead. “Just kill me now.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Okay—you got all of that?”

 

“Uh…. not at all.” Lance groans as he leans against the mirrored wall. Keith frowns and crosses his arms over his chest, shooting a glare at Lance. “Hey—you only showed me the dance once—you can’t expect me to have it perfectly memorized!”

 

Lance tilts his head, a slight frown on his face. “We’ve ran through it three times though—with me doing it with you! How hard can it be!”

 

 _Really fucking hard._ Keith thought, letting out a huff in annoyance. Lance just had to choreograph a dance with Keith’s greatest weakness—his hips. He was fine when it came to swaying them side to side—but that was all he could do with them. He couldn’t figure out how Lance can move his hips in _so many ways._ Did he not have bones? “Hey—give me some slack, it’s my first time okay?”

 

Lance mumbles something under his breath as he runs a hand down his face, then goes over to the speaker system and starts playing [the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwafUvAiaAQ) again. “I’m gonna watch you do it so I can see what you’re getting wrong.”

 

Keith groans as the song plays again but gets into position anyway. _I swear, I’m never gonna be able to listen to Bubble Butt again._ He didn’t listen to it before, but won’t be listening to it ever again. He starts rocking his hips to the beat, then transitions to the next move with the change of the beat.

 

“Nope nope nope wrong.” Lance turns off the music, then walks over and stands in front of Keith with his back facing him. “Look—for the move to work you gotta push your hips back before bringing them forward.” He demonstrates the move as he talks to Keith, then turns around and puts his hands on his hips. “Try again.”

 

Keith bites back the retort that was on the tip of his tongue and tries to repeat the move, barely getting halfway before Lance was shaking his head. “No—Keith you gotta listen.” He walks behind Keith and puts his hands on Keith’s hips. Keith tenses up instantly, flushing at how casually Lance put his hands on him—and why was he standing so _close--_ “Look, back,” Lance gently turned Keith’s hips at an angle, then pulled them back towards him, “then around,” he moves Keith’s hips in an arc, “and forward.” Towards the end of the move he guided Keith’s hips back forward, then tilted them slightly so his hip popped out more at the side.” Lance peeks at Keith over his shoulder, looking completely unfazed. “Got it?”

 

Keith quickly looked away, hoping that his hair hid enough of his face so Lance couldn’t tell he was blushing. He shifts in Lance’s grip, wanting Lance’s hands off him but also wanting to lean towards him. He could feel the heat radiating off Lance from how close they were standing—how was this boy not as uncomfortable as Keith? Did he just not have any boundaries? “Y-Yeah—“

 

Lance raises an eyebrow, dubious about Keith’s response. _Dude just drop it._ Keith begged mentally, but alas, the universe wasn’t on his side. “I don’t believe you. Look—it’s not really that hard.” He guided Keith’s hips through the motions again, making sure to guide him through the motions on both sides. “You just need to loosen up and move your hips—why are you so tense?”

 

 _Because I’m being manhandled by sex on legs who doesn’t seem to notice how awkward this is?_ Keith closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, trying to force himself to relax like Lance said. “I’m not tense.”

 

“Bullshit—you’re practically radiating tension.”

 

“Lance--“

 

“Keith, there you are.” Keith and Lance both jump and look towards the door, finding Allura leaning against the entryway with a knowing smirk on her face. “I figured I’d find you with Lance. I hate to cut your…bonding moment short but you have a client waiting.”

 

Keith blinks, his brain taking a few moments to process what Allura just said. He blushes as he pulls out of Lance’s arms, then clears his throat and glances over at the wall to avoid eye contact. “Alright—I’ll be right there.”

 

Lance stands up straight and runs a hand through his hair, then checks the time on his watch. “Perfect timing—I have a class in ten minutes. Meet back here afterwards.” Lance claps a hand on Keith’s shoulder as he passes, grabbing his phone from the docking station of the speaker system before walking out the door. Keith shoots a glare at Allura, who was still standing by the front door. Allura only wiggles her eyebrows before she chuckles and leaves the same direction as Lance. Keith takes a calming, deep breath before leaving to find his client, trying not to think about Lance’s hands touching other things besides his hips.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith ended up having two clients before he had some free time in his schedule again. He was able to get one of them to set him as their personal trainer (the other one was indecisive but whatever), so besides Lance pushing his buttons today was a pretty good day. He glances over at the clock, realizing that Lance would be in the middle of another class by now. He sighs heavily, deciding to get a snack from the employee lounge before going to practice on the dance again. He tried not to think about how effortlessly Lance could move his hips and ignoring how his heart fluttered when he thought about the Cuban’s smile. _Could I get any gayer?_

 

He grunted as he pushed open the door to the lounge, greeted by the sight of Pidge sitting at the table with their laptop sitting in front of them. “Oh, hey Pidge.” Pidge grunts in acknowledgement, keeping their eyes on their screen as they frantically type away. Keith shrugs, heading over to his locker to get a towel to wipe the sweat away from his face. “So, the dance isn’t as bad as the video you showed me.”

 

“Thank fucking god.” Pidge wheezed off, slouching down in their seat and running a hand through their hair. “I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing Lance hump the floor again.” Keith winces, still struggling with the fact Lance danced with him earlier, and now has to struggle with the image of Lance humping other things—like him. _Nope don’t need this right now._

 

“Uh—yeah—don’t need to see that.” Keith chuckles nervously, draping his towel around his neck as he walks over to where Pidge was sitting, looking over their shoulder. “What are you working on?”

 

Pidge smiles crookedly as they look over their shoulder at Keith, their face lighting up from their once dull expression. “I’m helping my old robotics team with some of their coding—honestly none of their codes are as advanced as mine but I figured I could give them a few pointers.”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow as he looks at the mass of coding in front of them, unable to understand a single thing he saw. “Wow, that’s really cool—what kind of robotics is it?”

 

Pidge shrugs, turning back to their screen and starts typing again. “Right now they’re working on a grant project to help elderly people home alone—like administering medication and whatnot—but they do occasionally build robots for battling.”

 

“Woah…. that’s really cool.” Keith smiles down at Pidge. “Is this your robotics club from college?”

 

Pidge smirks and nods, leaning back and crossing their arms over their chest. “Yep—I was the president during my junior and senior year—basically set all this up for them before I left. But that doesn’t mean I can’t go in and critique their work to make sure they’re getting everything right.”

 

Keith smiles, glad that he was learning more about Pidge. “That’s really cool.”

 

Pidge smiles, leaning back and nudging Keith’s side. “Thanks—they have a match next month if you wanna come with.”

 

Keith smiles crookedly and shifts his weight to his right hip. “Sure—I can go watch robots beating each other up.”

 

“Awesome—I’ll text you the details.” Pidge goes back to programming, crossing their legs under them as they work.

 

“Do you need my phone number?” Keith asks, going to reach for his phone.

 

“Nope—I got it on your first day—don’t ask how.”

 

“Uh…”

 

“Keith! There you are! We got to get back to practice!” Lance barges into the room, walking in and grabbing Keith by his arm. “C’mon, if you can’t do the dance by tonight you’ll have to go shopping with me.”

 

Pidge scoffs from their seat, eyes still on the screen as they talk. “Keith, you make the absolute worst bets—you won’t survive Lance’s shopping spree.”

 

Lance ruffles Pidge’s hair, ignoring their shout of “Hey—“before dragging Keith towards the door. “No time Pidgeon! I’ll sass you later!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith sighs heavily as he leans against the wall, taking a drink from his cold water bottle. They had run through the dance at least ten more times and Lance was finally satisfied enough for them to take a break. After the third run through, the second backup dancer came in and quickly picked up the dance. He didn’t want to admit it but he was jealous of how it only took her two run throughs for her to dance in sync with Lance. He pouts as he watches the pair interact, noticing how the other backup dancer, he thinks is named Eva, talks so easily with Lance as the two do some stretches to stay limber. When Lance laughs at something she says Keith couldn’t help but frown, wondering just how close the pair was.

 

“Hey Keith!” Eva stands up and lightly jogs over to him, her silvery-blue hair swaying back and forth as he walks over to Keith. He raises an eyebrow, wondering what the short, stocky girl wanted to talk to him with. She flashes Keith a smile, leaning against the wall next to him. “So, how you liking your first week here?”

 

Keith hums and shrugs, taking another sip of his water to procrastinate answering, still uneasy around new people. “It’s alright…I already have four clients sign me as their personal trainer.”

 

“Really? That’s cool.” She hums, looking over at Lance before leaning over and wrapping one of her arms around Keith’s arm. “What do you do in your free time?”

 

Keith tenses up, slowly leaning away as he glances at the ground, uncomfortable with how close Eva was getting. “Uh…..sometimes I play guitar?”

 

“Okay! Breaks over!” Lance stomps over and pulls Eva away from Keith, a frown on his face as he looks over at Eva.

 

Eva chuckles, slapping Lance’s ass as she stands on her tip toes to not so subtly whisper into his ear. “You owe me five bucks,” before walking towards the center of the room. Lance blushes and squeaks, then huffs before stomping towards the sound system.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, wondering what that interaction was as he heads to the center of the room to get into position. The music plays and Keith closes his eyes, listening to the first few beats to get himself used to the beat before starting to move to the music. When the hip movement comes up he was able to easily move his hips to the beat, finding the move easier after having to practice it for so long today. He didn’t have to open his eyes until they had to transition to the next move, a simple move where they pull a fist across their chest as they step to the side, then drops their arm in front of them before swinging their arm around in front of them, doing this on each side twice before the move speeds up with the music.

 

The dark haired boy glances in the reflection to see how he compared to the two ‘professionals’. Lance and Eva were dancing almost in sync—the main difference being how Lance seems to bounce on the balls of his feet as he continued dancing, while Eva was more technical and stiff in her movements. Keith was, surprisingly, keeping up with the pair, keeping an eye on Lance and Eva to make sure he was dancing in sync with them. When the hip movements made a return from the beginning Keith barely paid attention, his muscle memory allowing him to make a smooth transition. He didn’t really start paying attention until they switch moves again, pouting a bit as they do the slow kicks with his hands held above his head before bouncing around and swinging his hands in a circle around his head.

 

Lance lets out a chuckle, causing Keith to look over at him and raise an eyebrow, wondering what got the other male laughing and pouts again as Lance quickly looks back to the front. Both boys were too distracted to each other to see Eva roll her eyes, finding them to be too dense for their own good. Keith lets out a huff as the move speeds up, then shoots a look over at Lance when he lets out a ‘woop’ as they go back to the hip movement again, noticing how Lance runs his hand through his hair. He fails not to think about how warm Lance’s hands were as they held onto his hips earlier today. _Hey—stop being gay for ten minutes and focus._

 

The next move was the one that Keith struggled with the most—the one that Lance earlier described as ‘twerking’. He struggled to move his legs and hips fast enough to move with the music, noticing how easily Lance and Eva carry out this move. Needless to say, he was relieved when they moved on to the next move—the arm-punching move from earlier. Keith sighs, more confident with this move and only fumbling a bit when the move sped up. The leg-kicking moved repeated itself as well, then switched back to the hip movement from the very beginning.

 

Keith felt more comfortable the more run-throughs they did, almost confident that when Pidge arrived that they could probably shoot it in one take. A small smile slips on his face as they repeat the hip move again, too caught up in the dance to notice Lance starting to dance around Eva and Keith. He raises an eyebrow as he saw Eva and Lance shaking their hips side to side, then blushes a big as Lance backed up towards him and bumped Keith’s hips with his. Before Keith can properly process what happened Lance was lightly jogging up to his spot before they transition to the next and last move.

 

Lance and Eva easily move down into low squats and slowly rock their hips and thighs, keeping their shoulders level as they move their lower body. Keith bites his bottom lip as he tries to move down lower, unable to move down as low as the other two. He lets his eyes wonder down Lance’s body, swallowing down a lump in his throat as he watches Lance effortlessly sways his hips side to side. When the dance was over Lance groans and stands up straight, leaning back to let his back pop and sighs. “Alright—I say that was good enough for filming tomorrow.”

 

Keith blinks, looking over at Lance and furrowing his brow. “Wait—tomorrow? I thought we were filming today?”

 

Lance walks over to the docking station and picks up his phone. “We were, but Pidge had something come up so we rescheduled it.”

 

Keith groans, laying down on the ground face down. “Oh my god—“

 

Lance and Eva both laugh, then walk over towards Keith. Eva sits down next to him and pats his back. “Hey—at least you already know the dance.” Keith groans again, turning his head to look at where Lance was crouched down next to him.

 

Lance smiles crookedly, then reaches forward and brushes Keith’s bangs out of his face. “Don’t be so dramatic—that’s my job.” He chuckles, then stands up and offers a hand to Keith. “C’mon—work ended an hour ago.”

 

Keith looks up at the clock on the wall, eyes widen a bit as he checks the time. “Wait—really? Shit.” He takes Lance’s hand to help stand up, his hand lingers just a second longer than necessary before slowly pulling away. “Well, I guess we got to get going.”

 

Lance smiles and nods, picking up his bag and heading towards the door with Eva close behind. “So, see you tomorrow?”

 

Keith smiles crookedly and nods, walking over to his bag to pick up his stuff. “Yeah…. see you tomorrow Lance. Nice meeting you Eva.” Eva waves and heads out the door, Lance lingering a few seconds before leaving himself.

 

Keith exhales heavily, running a hand through his hair as he gathers his things and heads out for the night. He still didn’t know what to think of Lance. He seemed nicer to him today, so maybe they can be friends? Keith felt a heavy weight settle on his chest and frowns, wondering just what the feeling meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Comments/kudos are always appreciated! 
> 
> Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwafUvAiaAQ 
> 
> Real talk, do you guys want me to include the link to the dances described into the chapters so they're easier to click on, or do you want me to continue linking the video into the end notes of the chapter?
> 
> Edit: Links to the videos are now in the chapters! Also added the video that Pidge showed Keith just for fun


	4. Filming, Investigations, and...Heels?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally finish filming on the video, Keith keeps asking questions, and Lance loves shopping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO'S FINALLY BACK!!! 
> 
> Sorry for the wait guys, had a bunch of projects due on top of midterms and the start of research projects (kill me now) but I'm on spring break with almost a foot of snow on the ground so I was finally able to finish this chapter! (btw its over 6k words which makes it the longest chapter yet) 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

“I’m honestly surprised you’re not dead yet.” Pidge commented, typing away on their laptop as Keith, Lance, and Eva took a break in between takes. They all came into work early so that they could finish filming the video to give Pidge ample time to edit and post the video before the end of next week. They had already filmed three takes, but Lance insisted on doing more ‘so that it could be absolutely perfect.’

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, looking over at Pidge with a quizzical expression. He pushes his bangs out of his face, tilting his head as he turns to look at the other as he speaks. “Why? Honestly, Lance hasn’t been that bad.”

 

Pidge’s eyes widen and they slap a hand over Keith’s mouth, leaning in closer and whispering harshly. “Don’t—if Lance hears you he won’t let you live it down.” Keith pouts behind Pidge’s hand, then manages to pry their hand away and lean back. “C’mon, you know I’m right.”

 

Keith looks over at where Lance and Eva were playing hand games, remembering how bold and obnoxious Lance can be. Granted, the more time he spent with the Cuban the more they seemed to get along…. but there were still times that Lance seemed to be harsh or cold towards him. Was Lance still hung up over what happened at college? They seemed to be getting along earlier when Lance was teaching him the dance, but the moment he asked about what happened the other boy got defensive and quiet. Just what was that boy thinking? He sighs heavily and lays down on the floor, his head towards Pidge as he closes his eyes. “Yeah.”

 

Pidge glances towards Lance and Eva, then when they confirm that the pair wasn’t paying attention to them, leans close to Keith and whispers softly. “Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s a good friend to have. He’s gotten into fights for me before and he’s a sweet guy.”

 

Keith huffs, looking up at Pidge through his bangs as they fall back into his eyes, dubious about their statement. “I’ll believe it when I see it. He’s been hot and cold with me.”

 

“Don’t blame you.” Pidge grins, then nudges Keith with their foot as they jerk their chin towards Lance. “Though that doesn’t stop you from staring at his ass when he dances.”

 

Keith blushes and scoffs, turning to look away from Lance and crossing his arms over his chest. “Wh—What? No I don’t.” He tries to deny, even though he knows that he does. Lance has a great ass, okay? It’s impossible not to stare at.

 

“Really? Cus all the footage so far says otherwise.” Well shit, footage doesn’t lie. Pidge hums, looking at their screen before smirking mischievously. “Y’know, it would be a shame if Lance found out…”

 

Shit, Keith knew that tone. He might have only known Pidge for little over a week but he knew when he was being blackmailed. He frowns, his brows pinching together as he looks over at the tech guru. “What do you want?”

 

Pidge doesn’t even bother looking from their screen, continuing their work. “Coffee for two weeks.”

 

Keith grumbles and sits up, mumbling as he speaks to Pidge again. “Fine.” He glances back over at Lance, noticing how he was now fixing the braids in Eva’s hair as they chatted. He lowers his voice and looks back at Pidge, shifting closer to the other. “Hey, you don’t know what happened in college to make Lance hate me, do you?”

 

Pidge looks away from their computer screen, surprised by the hurt expression on Keith’s face. They make sure to save their work before closing their laptop, turning so that they were facing Keith, giving him their full attention. “Nope. While I was friends with Lance at the time he only told Hunk what happened—and Hunk made me promise not to ask or pry. Maybe you should ask him.”

 

“Okay guys! Let’s do three more takes and if it’s perfect we can be done for the day!” Lance grins, skipping towards Keith and Pidge, putting his hands on his hips as he stops in front of the pair. “Whatcha two talking about?”

 

Pidge smirks as they stand up and stretches. “Oh, just about how I’m surprised Keith hasn’t passed out yet.”

 

Keith huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Hey—I’m not out of shape or anything. I work out every day and it’s kinda my job?” He stands up and stretches, missing the way that Lance’s eyes wander down his body.

 

Pidge rolls their eyes and pushes Lance towards the stage they set up to film the video. “You two can flirt later—I have real work to do.” Lance blushes a bit and stutters, insisting that they weren’t flirting as Keith quietly gets into position, mumbling a ‘yeah’ as Eva walks over to Keith.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow as Eva walks up to him, standing taller than yesterday since she had a pair of high heel booties on—now coming up closer to Keith’s chin instead of his shoulder. She bumps Keith with her hip, Keith only getting pushed back slightly. “Hey—we should go grab coffee after we finish filming—there’s a coffee shop down the street that has great muffins.”

 

Keith flushes and takes a step back, putting more distance between himself and Eva. Was she asking him out on a date? Ugh, this was why he usually stayed away from females—shit like this always happens and it makes him super uncomfortable. “Uh—I’m flattered… but I’m very gay.”

 

Eva blinks, tilting her head slightly before she starts laughing, holding onto her sides. “Dude—I’m Hella gay too—I just wanted to talk, bro.”

 

Lance groans as he walks over to Keith and Eva, separating them. “Guys—we gotta finish filming.”

 

Eva rolls her eyes and pats Lance’s shoulder. “Calm down Lancelot, I’ll buy you a muffin afterwards.” That seemed to calm Lance down, the Cuban taking a deep breath and mumbling under his breath before turning away. Eva raises her eyebrows and smiles before mouthing the words ‘see ya there’ before getting into position.

 

This is going to be a very long day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eight. More. Takes.

 

It took eight more fucking takes before Lance and Pidge finally agreed that they got enough footage for Pidge to work with. Keith didn’t want to admit it, but his legs and abs were aching from the repetitive motion. Lance wasn’t kidding when he said the dance had a focus on abs. He sips his water and checks the time, noticing that they (somehow) still had twenty minutes before the gym started their classes. Keith was about to head towards the weight room to make sure it was organized as he felt a hand wrap around his wrist and tug him towards the front of the building. “Wha—“

 

“I was serious about coffee and muffins—my girlfriend makes the absolute best muffins in town.” Eva hums, waving to Nyma at the front desk before dragging Keith outside towards the bakery.

 

Keith frowns a bit as he looks back towards the gym. “Didn’t you also invite Lance?”

 

“I’m going to bring him his food and coffee. I wanted to have a chat with you first.” Eva looks over her shoulder and smiles crookedly, the left side of her lip quirking up higher than the other. “It’s about you and Lance.”

 

What? Keith blinks, wondering what Eva could possibly want to talk to him about—especially involving Lance. “What?” He pouts a bit as they walk into a small coffee shop at the corner, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee and warm pastries filling the air. Sitting behind the counter was a small woman with black hair and light skin, her black hair pulled up in a ponytail and her tank-top showing off a full-sleeve tattoo on her right arm. As the bell chimed she looked up, smiling softly as she looked over at Eva. “Hey honeybun.”

 

Eva smiles widely, skipping over to the counter and leaning over to give the girl a quick peck on the lips. “Hey sugarplum. I need the usual for me and Lance, and whatever Keith—the dude by the door—wants.”

 

When the woman behind the counter looked over at Keith he flushes from embarrassment and waves slightly, unsure what to really do in this situation. She smiles and motions for Keith to step closer, then holds out her hand for Keith to shake. “Name’s Beth. Whatcha’ want?”

 

“Uh….” Keith quickly scans over the menu, wanting to find something quickly so that he would stop being the center of attention. “A black coffee and chocolate muffin?”

 

Beth nods, then goes to start filling their order. Keith reaches for his wallet and Eva slaps his hand away before taking her wallet out and paying for them all. “Nope—you can get next time.”

 

Once they have their coffees and muffins, Eva and Keith start heading back to the gym at a considerably slower pace. Eva hums, sipping her coffee before easily commenting. “Y’know, Lance really likes you.”

 

Keith grunts and sips his coffee, glad for the caffeine running through his veins, but not for Eva’s comment. If Lance liked him, he had a piss poor way of showing it. “I doubt that—he acts like an ass half the time we’re together.”

 

Eva rolls her eyes and gently bumps Keith’s hip as they walk. “Dude, when I was ‘flirting’ with you yesterday he nearly popped a blood vessel. I had a bet with him that if he saw someone flirting with you he’d get possessive and he lost. Dude lasted a total of two seconds—even though he knew I wasn’t seriously flirting with you. He’s got it bad.”

 

Keith pouts, his brows furrowing slightly as he remembers how quickly Lance had them go back to dancing after Eva talked to him. “That doesn’t mean he likes me.”

 

“Okay, keep telling yourself that.” Eva coos, opening the door to the gym and letting Keith walk in before her. “But I’ll bet you 50 bucks that you’ll be dating by the end of the year.”

 

Keith, feeling confident with his interpretation of Lance’s feelings and actions towards him, figured that he would not be dating Lance any time soon. So he figured, why not? It was an easy way to make fifty bucks. He smirks over at Eva, bumping his hip against hers as they head towards the employee lounge. “You’re on.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The gym was slow today—which tends to happen throughout the year. There are months were more people come in to work out, and others where only regulars came. Since none of Keith’s clients came in, and no new people arrived, he pretty much could do whatever he wanted today. Granted, his legs were still sore from this morning, but that wasn’t going to stop him from exploring the gym.

 

Keith was in the basement, heading down a hallway he’s never been down before, looking around as he tried to familiarize himself with his new workplace. He frowns a bit and sniffs the air, noticing that it was starting to smell more like chlorine. At the end of the hallway were three doors, two locker rooms, and a third one labeled pool. There was a big window that allowed people to view into the pool room, surprised to see that there were several pools—one for laps, another for free swim, and one for swimming lessons. There must have been a class going on right now—parents were sitting on the benches lining the wall closest to the shallow pool, said pool surrounded by at least 15 children. Hunk was in the water, demonstrating how to do proper strokes as the kids watched.

 

Keith smiles crookedly as he watches the lesson for a few more minutes, then remembers his talk with Pidge early this morning. He chews on his bottom lip, wondering if he should really ask Hunk why Lance hated him. He leans against the glass, wondering if he should even be prying—Lance was starting to act a bit more civil towards him, compared to their first meeting. Maybe if he just waited long enough, whatever happened between them will pass and then they could… Wait, what did he want to happen between them? He furrows his brows and crosses his arms over his chest. He first thought that he just wanted Lance to be nice to him while they were at work. Did he not want that now? Why did he even care what Lance thought of him anyway? Plenty of people have hated him before and he never cared. There was just something about Lance that made him want to get closer—but was it as friends? Or more?

 

“Oh—hey Keith! How’re you doing?” Keith jumps, startled out of his thoughts, caught off guard by Hunk suddenly standing beside him. Hunk’s eyes widen a bit as he holds a hand up. “Woah—calm down.”

 

Keith takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair, smiling sheepishly over at Hunk. “Sorry…. I was spacing out a bit and didn’t notice you coming up.” He chuckles, nervous for being caught spacing out.

 

Hunk smiles, reaching out and placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “No worries, man. How’re you doing?”

 

“Bored. I haven’t had any clients come in today so I was wondering around. You?” Keith asks, pushing himself off the wall and smiling softly at Hunk. He hasn’t talked to Hunk much besides small talk in the breakroom. The Samoan seemed like a great, loveable guy—someone he could see being a friend, like Pidge.

 

Hunk smiles, Keith instantly feeling calm from Hunk’s cheery nature. “I just finished my last class of the day. The kids are just starting to learn the different strokes—if they keep progressing so fast they’ll be graduating in no time! Once they get the basics down Coran can teach them more advance techniques in the advance class!”

 

Keith smiles as he listened to Hunk talk, finding conversations where the other person dominates the conversation more pleasant. Shiro blames Keith’s social awkwardness, Keith just says he’s quiet. Especially compared to a certain Blue-eyed Cuban. He quickly shakes the thought away, focusing back in on his conversation with Hunk. “That’s great. You must be a good teacher.”

 

Hunk smiles shyly and runs a hand through his still damp hair. “I guess it just comes naturally. Lance and I basically grew up in the water, and I love kids—so teaching them to swim just seemed like an easy choice.”

 

“Wait—how long have you know Lance?” Keith asked, his smile falling off his face. Did everyone know Lance? Did he dragged all his friends to work at Voltron Gym?

 

Hunk smiles crookedly, patting his hair dry with the towel that was draped across his shoulders. “We were best friends in elementary school and have been ever since. So basically forever.”

 

Keith looks down at his shoes, working up the nerve to ask Hunk about Lance. He takes in a deep breath, then looks up at Hunk. “Do you know what I did to Lance during college? That made him hate me?” Hunk takes in a sharp intake of breath, standing stiff beside Keith. Keith worries his bottom lip in between his teeth as he tries to read Hunk’s face. Hunk’s eyes were surprisingly soft, but his mouth was set in a firm frown.

 

Hunk makes sure to stare directly into Keith’s eyes, lowering his voice. Shit—did he just piss off the nicest person working here? How did he manage that? Keith was getting anxious, unable to read the expression on Hunk’s face—was that stern? Concerned? Worry? Damn it he didn’t know. “I can’t say. I promised Lance I wouldn’t tell anyone—if you want to know, you have to ask him.”

 

Keith sighs heavily and closes his eyes, running a hand though his hair. “I have—and I’ve tried apologizing for it. But that’s hard to do when I can’t even remember what the fuck I did. I know I was an ass in college—but I’ve changed, and I want to apologize for what I did. But I can’t do that if he won’t tell me.”

 

Hunk looks deep into Keith’s eyes, searching to see if Keith was sincere. Keith made sure to keep eye contact, trying to portray his feelings with his eyes since he couldn’t with his words. After a few moments, Hunk lets out a deep breath and looks away, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay…I can tell you’re sincere, so I’ll try to talk to him. But I’m not telling you what happened—he has to tell you himself. He was really upset afterwards… I don’t want to see him like that again. So give him time.”

 

Keith takes in a deep breath and nods, shooting Hunk a small smile. “Thanks Hunk.”

 

Hunk pats Keith’s back, smiling softly as they start heading up the hallway. “It’s no problem. But it’ll all be up to Lance.” Keith nods, walking with Hunk back towards the employee lounge, preoccupied with thoughts of Lance as Hunk tells him about the new recipe he tried last night for dinner.

 

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

 

“Oh Kei~th!”

 

Keith groans, letting his head fall forward to hit the front of his locker with a loud thud. He looks over his shoulder to shoot a weak glare over at Lance, wondering how the taller male had so much energy—Keith was exhausted after the week he had and just wanted to go home. Halfway through the week he had a surge of potential clients, most of which didn’t know what they were doing so Keith had to demonstrate everything. He liked working out but damn it—he didn’t need to work out eight hours a day. He didn’t know if he had enough energy to deal with Lance right now. “What?”

 

Lance smirks and puts his hands on his hips, puffing his chest out as he stops beside Keith. “You officially lost the bet!”

 

Keith furrows his brows as he looks up at the Cuban, a confused look plastered on his face. They’ve had a bunch of bets going over the last week that it was hard to know which one Lance was referring to. “What bet? The bet about who was fastest? Shiro timed us both and I clearly won.”

 

Lance tilts his head and raises an eyebrow, then puffs his cheeks out slightly as Keith mentioned the bet from early that day. “What--? No! The other one!”

 

Keith blinks, still unsure what Lance was referring to. “…what?”

 

Lance groans and throws his head back, then pinches the bridge of his nose, mumbling under his breath again before shaking his head and smirking down at Keith again. “The one with the video, dude. My fans totally noticed you moving off in a few of the scenes.”

 

Keith’s eyes widen as he remembers what Lance was talking about, _that was almost a week ago damn it—_ he crosses his arms over his chest and narrows his eyes at Lance, wondering just how truthful he was. He did lie about Keith surviving that Zumba class—is he lying now? “Really? I don’t believe you.”

 

Lance frowns, leaning forward as he glares at Keith. “Dude—it’s totally true and I can prove it!” He fishes his phone out of his pocket, tapping a bit too hard on the screen as he pulls up whatever he was looking for.

 

 Keith shifts his weight over to his right leg, drumming his fingers against his arm as he waits. “Take your time, I’m hourly.”

 

Lance scoffs and flips him off as he keeps his eyes on the screen, scrolling a bit before looking back up at Keith. When Lance smirks at him, Keith can’t stop the chill that runs up his spine and jumps a bit as Lance thrusts his phone into Keith’s face. He frowns and takes the phone from the Cuban, rolling his eyes before glancing down. On the screen was a list of YouTube comments from the video and Keith visibly pales, suddenly anxious about what they said. He reads a few comments, raising an eyebrow curiously as he notices most of the comments didn’t even mention him—and the few that did only mentioned that he was new. “….and? There’s nothing here, Lance.”

 

Lance scoffs, taking the phone from Keith and quickly finding the comment that he wanted, stepping close to Keith so they could both read from the screen. “No look—FanCyDreAmer noticed—they even wrote what times in the video you were off from. Which means I win!” Lance smiles at Keith and bumps him with his hip, Keith groaning loudly as he gets pushed over by Lance and stumbling to regain his balance.

 

“C’mon now—that was one comment out of hundreds! That can’t mean—“ Keith goes to argue, but gets cut off as Lance slaps a hand over his mouth.

 

“Ah haha—no. A bet is a bet and you lost. Now you gotta go shopping with me!” Lance coos, swaying his hips back and forth a bit as he bounces with excitement. Keith glares at Lance, getting tired of this shit and licking Lance’s hand in retaliation. Lance’s eyes go comically wide and he screeches, pulling his hand away and holding it in front of him like it was contagious. “Keith! What the fuck?!”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow and smirks, reaching into his locker as he pulls out a clean shirt to change into. “Shouldn’t have put your hand on my mouth.” Lance huffs, wiping his hand on Keith’s clean shirt and Keith shrugs, slipping off his sweat-soaked shirt and putting on the other shirt anyway. It’s not like it was really dirty—it was his own spit.

 

Lance cringes a bit and takes a step back, his nose crinkling a bit near the bridge as he shoots a look of disgust at the shorter male. “Dude, you’re gross.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes as he tosses his dirty shirt into his gym bag to take home, knowing better than to leave it in his locker overnight. “Whatever. When do you want to go shopping?” At the mention of shopping Lance instantly perks up, a wide smile on his face and his blue eyes practically shinning. Huh, who knew excited Lance could be cute? _Not now gay thoughts._

 

Lance sways his hips back and forth quickly, almost like a dog wagging its tail when its excited, smiling widely and cooing at Keith. “Eleven AM tomorrow—what kind of car do you have?”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow at the question, wondering why Lance was asking. “I don’t have one—I have a motorcycle.”

 

Lance pouts a bit and stands up straight, crossing his arms over his chest. “Okay so I’m gonna drive—there’s no way everything I’m buying is fitting on a motorcycle. I’ll pick you up right at eleven so make sure to be ready.”

 

Keith exhales slowly and nods, reaching into his locker to get his wallet, phone, and keys so that he could leave for the night. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Keith!” Lance grabs Keith’s shoulder to keep him from walking away, then reaches into his bag and fishes out his phone. Keith’s eyes widen and he tries to grab for his phone, Lance turning around at the last second and holding the phone out at arm’s length.

 

“Lance! Give me back my phone!” Keith growls out, trying to reach around Lance for his phone.

 

Lance tisk’ed at Keith and pushes one of his hands away. “Calm down—Jesus—I’m just giving you my number so I can fucking text you when I’m outside your apartment tomorrow!” Keith instantly stops fighting Lance for his phone, a look of understanding crossing his face. He blinks and mumbles out a little ‘oh’, then blushes lightly as he realized how close he was to Lance before quickly stepping away. Lance, seeming not to notice, just plugged in his number in Keith’s phone and sent a quick text to himself before handing Keith his phone again. “There—was that so hard?”

 

Keith pouts as he takes his phone from Lance, looking over the contact Lance just added. He raises an eyebrow as he looks up at Lance. “Really? Did you have to use, like, eight different emojis in the contact name?”

 

Lance smiles crookedly and chuckles, turning towards his locker and starting to pack up his own stuff. “Be grateful I didn’t make us take a selfie for the contact pic. Though I’m still tempted to do that.”

 

Keith quickly stuffs his phone into his pocket and starts walking towards the door, rolling his eyes as he speaks, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Oh, I’m so grateful.”

 

“Hey—“ Lance throws a towel at Keith, causing the latter to jump and quickly turn around, glaring at the blue-eyed boy again. Lance smirks, shooting two finger guns towards Keith. “See ya tomorrow Mullet-man.”

 

Keith huffs but nods, pushing open the door to the employee lounge. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith was absolutely fucked.  

 

Seriously, he didn’t know if he was going to survive this.

 

Lance picked him up right at eleven like he said he would—which Keith wasn’t expecting; he expected to have at least fifteen minutes after eleven to get ready. Lance seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t be punctual to anything, so when Keith got a call on his phone from Lance saying he was outside he was shocked—to say the least. He had to quickly slide on his black skinny jeans (not an easy feat), the first clean t-shirt he could find, his boots, and his bike jacket before rushing out the door to his apartment. If the rush to get ready wasn’t bad enough, once they actually got to the mall Lance latched onto his hand the moment he got out of the car and started dragging him around to different stores.

 

Keith tried to ignore that way his heart sped up and cheeks heated up when Lance took his hand, taking longer steps to try to keep up—damn long legs making Lance so fast. He’d deny it later, but he totally got distracted looking at Lance. This was the first time since college that he’s seen Lance in something other than workout clothes and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Lance was wearing a white and blue baseball tee, paired with a green jacket with orange stripes on the sleeves, and simple blue jeans. With how Lance dressed for work, ‘normal’ clothes were the last thing he was expecting. He figured that the moment they got inside the mall Lance would drop his hand, but was (pleasantly) surprised when Lance didn’t. Why was he getting so excited? This was Lance—loud, stubborn, obnoxious Lance. They were ‘rivals’, so why were they holding hands? What’s going on in Lance’s head?

 

They walk around the mall for a bit as Lance talks about what he was looking for today—mostly workout clothes and leggings—but Keith wasn’t really listening and just nodded along to what Lance was saying. The pair walked into five different clothing stores, not really finding anything of interest before Lance was tugging Keith out.

 

Lance scans the surrounding stores and smiles widely as he sees the store he was looking for, tugging Keith into a store called ‘H&M’—whatever that means. “So far no luck—we should find something in here!”

 

Keith stumbles a bit as Lance tugs him around the clothing racks, a slight pout on his face. “Lance—slow down. You’re gonna dislocate my shoulder at this rate.”

 

Lance blushes a bit, taking smaller steps and slowing his pace. “Sorry—I get kinda excited when I go out shopping. It’s one of the reasons why people don’t like to go shopping with me.”

 

Keith frowns a bit, not liking the idea of Lance having to shop alone because of his behavior. While he was tired of being dragged around like a ragdoll, he didn’t really mind since Lance looked so happy. He lets out a sigh and gently nudges Lance with his shoulder. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. Just try not to pull too hard, okay? And slow down—it’s not like the clothes are going anywhere.”

 

Lance looks over at Keith, a light blush on his face before he smiles with the confidence that’s usually there, then holds up their still-joint hands. “That’s why I haven’t let go yet—don’t want you falling behind, mullet.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes and smiles crookedly, letting the nickname slide—this time. “C’mon—you haven’t bought any workout clothes yet and we’ve been at the mall for two hours already.”

 

Lance smiles and starts leading them around the store again, this time at a more reasonable pace. Lance grabbed everything that seemed even mildly interesting to him, handing things to Keith to hold before moving to the next display. In what seemed like five minutes both Lance and Keith had their arms full of different shirts, pants, and whatever else Lance liked before heading over to the changing rooms. Lance grabbed a number from the lady and heading into a stall, looking over his shoulder and smirking at Keith. “Stay right there—I’m gonna model these for you and I’ll need your opinion on how they look.”

 

Keith grunts and nods, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall by the changing rooms. He knew nothing about fashion—he usually wore clothes for comfort over style (his only exception being his skinny jeans, but they make his legs look good). He didn’t know what to expect when Lance came out in a pair of high-waisted jean shorts and a white shirt with ‘cute AF’ printed on it. He blinks, looking Lance over slowly, noticing how Lance’s legs seemed even longer in those shorts. What he wouldn’t do to have those wrapped around his neck— _not now gay thoughts._

 

Lance looks at Keith and smirks, seeming to know exactly what Keith was thinking about. He walks towards Keith, his hips swaying a bit before stopping in front of him and twirling around. “So? Whatcha’ think?”

 

“Well…. not bad.” Keith clears his throat and looks away, feeling his cheeks heat up a bit, whether it was from Lance or his thoughts about Lance he wasn’t sure. But he knew he didn’t want to inflate Lance’s ego already. He was sure Lance knew he was pretty— _wait no, calling him sexy is okay—pretty implies…. feelings._

 

Lance pouts a bit, crossing his arms in front of his chest and popping his hip out. “’Not bad’? That’s literally all you have to say? Dude—these shorts make my legs look like they go on for _days_ and all you can say is ‘not bad’?”

 

Keith looks up at Lance and smiles playfully, thinking that he found a button of Lance’s that he could push. “Guess you gotta find an outfit that can really ‘wow’ me.”

 

Lance puffs out his chest and huffs, then heads back to his stall, throwing a hand up in the air for dramatics. “Fine! I will!” Keith chuckles, starting to find Lance’s antics to be _kinda_ cute—even if it was directed towards him. At least twenty different outfits later, mainly including crop tops, Lance finally ran out of clothes to try on. Keith tempted to tell Lance he looked cute in everything he tried on, but figured that wouldn’t play over too well. Lance was just starting to warm up to him—no need to chase him off by flirting with him. Lance easily bought over ten pairs of pants and shirts at H &M—his defense being that the store was his ‘aesthetic’—whatever that means.

 

Keith thought he was off the hook once Lance bought something, but Lance, apparently, wasn’t done with him quite yet. Lance continued dragging them around the mall, making Keith carry one of his bags. Honestly, Keith didn’t mind. He just liked seeing Lance so happy and open around him. Lance wasn’t the guy he first saw his first time in the studio, cold and off-putting. This Lance was friendly and warm, even making Keith laugh. When Lance dragged them into Sephora, Keith wrinkled his nose at the scents of different perfumes in the store. His discomfort was quickly forgotten as Lance tested some of the different samples on both of them—even smudging some eyeliner on his cheek as Keith tried to push Lance’s hand away.

 

Lance ended up buying something called ‘foundation’ and a makeup pallet before they headed to the food court, Lance and Keith stealing each other’s food. It started with Lance taking a few of Keith’s French fries, then continued on with Keith taking some of Lance’s chicken poppers. After they ate they walk around the mall again, Keith finding his hand in Lance’s again as they continue to walk around the mall. “So, what now?”

 

Lance hums, sipping his drink as he looks around the stores they were around, smiling widely as he tosses his cup into a nearby trashcan. “Now I need heels.”

 

Keith blinks, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow as he looks up at the taller male. “Heels? Why?”

 

Lance smirks, dragging Keith into a shoe store and heading towards the bigger women’s size. “Because I need them for a work thing.”

 

“What? What’s happening at work?” Keith pouts a bit, looking around at the tall racks of shoes surrounding them that seemed to stack towards the ceiling.

 

“Oh, you’ll see.” Lance smirks at Keith again, then shoots a finger gun over at him and winks. Keith blushes a bit and huffs, looking away and following after Lance. Lance looks around his size, kicking off his shoes and trying on a few pairs.

 

Keith was playing a game on his phone, not really looking over at Lance before he feels someone loom over his shoulder. “What is it now…Lance?” His voice trails off as he finds himself not looking at Lance but at his chest, his eyes slowly trailing up to look at Lance’s smirking face. He frowns, knowing that Lance was maybe an inch taller than him, then looks down at his feet and spots the silver and blue heels. He looks back up at Lance and puffs his cheeks out. “That’s not fair.”

 

Lance smirks and sways his hips back and forth, resting his arms on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s totally fair—if girls can wear heels to be taller, why can’t I?” Lance grins and turns around, walking down to the end of the aisle, his hips easily swaying as he walked. No matter how hard Keith tried, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Lance—especially his hips and legs. _Damn, I guess that’s why people love heels so much._ Lance walks around the store for a bit more, pouting a bit as he looks down at the heels. “Yeah, I’ll think they’ll do.” Keith nods, ignoring the blush on his cheek as he follows Lance to the checkout.

 

Somehow, Lance and Keith stay at the mall all afternoon, wandering around different stores and Lance buying anything that caught his eyes. Keith didn’t buy much, but Lance did convince him to buy some new workout clothes (like he’s been meaning to). The sun was just starting to set as they piled their purchases in the back of Lance’s car, then starts the drive back to Keith’s apartment. Keith had a great time today—better than he ever thought possible—especially with how everyone kept telling him otherwise.

 

Lance pulls up to the front of Keith’s apartment, temporarily parking the car and smiling over at Keith.  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I actually had a great time with you today mullet.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes but smiles regardless, unbuckling his seat belt. “I had a good time with you too—surprisingly.”

 

Lance smiles wider, then reaches over and nudges Keith’s shoulder. “Hey—you make that sound like a bad thing.”

 

“With you? It is.” Lance scoffs, looking offended for a brief second before the pair starts laughing. Keith smiles over at Lance, wondering how he find Lance annoying with how beautiful his laugh is. God, he’d love to hear that again. “But seriously, if you ever want a shopping buddy, you can ask me.”

 

Lance’s eyes widen a bit as he looks over at Keith, his jaw falling open. “Wait—you serious? Like, really serious? You’re not sick, are you?”

 

Keith reaches over and puts his hand over Lance’s mouth, groaning and rolling his eyes. “Lance, don’t make me regret that I offered, okay?” Lance nods, shooting Keith a pleading look before Keith slowly pulls his hand away, smiling crookedly. “See you at work?”

 

Lance smiles shyly and nods, a faint blush on his face. “Yeah—see you at work.”

 

Keith smiles a bit wider, grabbing his one bag out of the trunk of Lance’s car before waving as he heads into his apartment building. Once he hears Lance drive away he smiles happily, walking up to his apartment before starting work on dinner. For once, he was looking forward to seeing a certain blue-eyed boy at work on Monday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally get a lil' bonding time outside of work--maybe things are gonna start progressing faster, yes? Though we didn't get Keith oggling Lance while he danced we did get him oggling Lance in cute clothes and heels so I guess thats still okay. 
> 
> Also, if you guys have music suggestions for the zumba dances that are featured in the fic either comment here or hmu on my blog @mammahen on tumblr and I'll try to find a good zumba choreography to go along to the suggested song!
> 
> So...let me know what you guys think comments are always appreciated


	5. Free Week and Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith tries to survive his first Free Week at Voltron Gym, ignore his gay thoughts, and figure out the enigma that is Lance McCain
> 
> He's only successful with one of these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *crawls* okay guys I know its been forever--but I had end-of-semester projects and exams which made it difficult to find time to write (technically I have a final tomorrow I should be studying for but w/e) But its an extra long chapter (like 2K longer than the last oops) so hope that makes up for it? 
> 
> Also, if you don't normally watch the videos I base the dances off of for this fic, I highly suggest you at least watch the Lance Dance video for this chapter--I tried my best to describe it but I didn't do it justice--plus its a really awesome dance why not watch? 
> 
> Enjoy!

Keith was starting to fall into a routine; he’d go on his morning run, join Eva for breakfast before heading into work, chat with his co-workers as he got ready, and work with a few regular clients. He was starting to become friends with his co-workers—Pidge and Eva especially. Hunk and Coran were easy to talk to too—and he’s even started talking a bit with Nyma who mains the front desk. He decided to stop pestering Lance about the incident for now—figuring that the Cuban would tell him whenever he felt ready. Keith still tried to talk to Lance, sometimes managing to have an actual conversation for a few minutes before Lance started being, well, Lance and challenged him to some strange bet. The last one (that Keith dreadfully lost) was to see who could hold a hand-stand the longest—though Lance totally cheated (if Lance’s shirt didn’t slide up he could have won, damn gay thoughts). He had to go shopping with Lance again, but he wasn’t upset about it. He actually liked hanging out with Lance outside of work—but he wasn’t going to tell him anytime soon. The last thing he wanted was to scare him off, or worse, inflate his ego.

 

“Dude, Earth to mullet—“ Keith jumps, startled out of his thoughts by Lance waving one of his hands in his face. He looks over at Lance and huffs, a mock scowl on his face. “Dude, the meeting is about to start—you comin’ or not?” Lance asks, popping his hip out and resting his hands on them. Oh right, the meeting. Allura was talking to them about this ‘free week’ that Lance mentioned a few weeks ago.

 

Keith rolls his eyes and smiles crookedly, shutting his locker and picking up his coffee from breakfast that morning. “Yeah—Shiro send you to fetch me?”

 

“Of course he did. If you’re not early you’re late—that’s Shiro’s policy.” Lance rolls his eyes and smiles, bumping his hip against Keith’s as he walks past him towards the entrance of the employee lounge.

 

Keith chuckles, bumping Lance’s hip back as they start making their way towards the conference room. “I know—try living with him for ten years. He once dropped me off at school an hour early.”

 

Lance winches, patting Keith’s shoulder before he opens up the door to the conference room. “That’s rough buddy.”

 

Keith shrugs, used to Shiro’s antics by now. “You get used to it.” He heads into the conference room, slipping in just before Lance and heading over to sit next to Pidge—who was already there as well as Hunk, Shiro, and Coran. “Hey—the meeting start yet?”

 

Pidge grunts something, eyes glued to their laptop as they quickly tap against the keyboard. They take a break from their aggressive tapping and holds their hand out towards Keith. Keith raises an eyebrow, looking at the hand offered towards him curiously. “What?”

 

“Coffee.” They state, making grabby hands towards Keith.

 

Keith groans, then surrenders his coffee to Pidge, making a note to grab himself another cup during his break today. “Hope you like it black.”

 

Pidge takes a long sip of the coffee, closing their eyes and taking in a deep breath. “Any coffee is good coffee.” They hum, taking another sip before handing Keith his coffee back. “No—since Lance and you took so long to get here, Allura went to get something from her office.”

 

Lance sits down between Hunk and Keith, scoffing and putting a hand on his chest. “Excuse? I took maybe five minutes’ max—besides Keith was daydreaming instead of getting ready.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, leaning back in his chair and sipping his coffee. “Whatever you say.”

 

Before Lance could retaliate, the conference door swings open and Allura walks in. She takes her seat near the head of the table and grins, setting her clipboard down and putting her hair up in a ponytail. “Okay! So, in two weeks it’s gonna be free week! Does everyone know what activity that they’re going to do?” Allura looks around the table, folding her arms in front of her as she rests them on the table. Keith’s face pales a bit—he didn’t know he had to plan something in advance. Fuck—what could he offer as a personal trainer? It’s not like he could teach a class. She looks over at Coran and Hunk. “What do our residential swim instructors have plan?”

 

Coran instantly perks up, reaching up and stroking his bright orange mustache (seriously, was his hair dyed or something?) as he sits up straighter.  “Well, after talking with Lance, I decided to do Aqua Zumba this year.” Lance shoots finger guns over at Coran at the mention of his name, leaning back in his chair. “Though we’ll have to make sure to include in the ad that swimsuits are required. The last time we offered this class half of them forgot swimsuits!”

 

Hunk and Shiro grimace, Hunk leaning back in his chair and groaning. “Ugh—that was such a pain. We had to keep reminding people swimsuits were required—then they got mad when we wouldn’t let them in the pool.”

 

Allura nods and writes notes down on her clipboard. “Alright—Coran’s event will be on Monday. What will you be doing Hunk?”

 

Hunk smiles widely, sitting forward in his seat. “Same as last year—aquacise. Why change a good thing?”

 

Allura nods again, taking notes as she listens to Hunk. “Okay—just to break up the pool activities, you’ll be on Wednesday. Plus, that doesn’t interfere with your classes.” Hunk nods, making a note in his phone on the date.  

 

Allura turns to look at Shiro and Keith, a crooked smile on her face. “So, what will our personal trainers be doing?”

 

Keith looks over at Shiro, eyes wide and silently asking his brother for help. He’s hoping that his brother has a plan because Keith can’t just pull a plan out of his ass—he’s impulsive, sure, but that doesn’t mean he’s a quick thinker.

 

“We’ll be offering free training sessions.” Shiro speaks up, glancing at Keith out of the corner of his eyes and smiles crookedly. Thank fuck for Shiro—actually having something planned in advance and saving Keith’s ass. Keith shoots Shiro a thankful smile, then nods in agreement as Allura looks at Keith before jotting down the notes on her clipboard.

 

“Alright—that’ll be offered Thursday. I’ll have a Zumba class on Tuesday, so we almost have the full week covered. You’ll be offering a Zumba class on Friday, right Lance?” Allura looks over at Lance, a small smile on her face.

 

Lance shakes his head and smiles crookedly. “Nope.” He pops the ‘p’, then slips his feet off the table and sits up straight. “I’m doing the same thing as last year.”

 

Allura’s eyes widen, her eyebrows shooting up as she gapes at Lance. “Really? Lance, are you sure…? We don’t want a repeat of last year.” Keith’s eyes widen and he quickly looks over at Lance, wondering what the hell Allura was talking about. Did something bad happen last year?

 

Lance goes tense for a second before quickly relaxing—if Keith wasn’t paying attention he probably would has missed—before leaning forward in his seat. “C’mon ‘Lura, it’ll be okay. I’ve been keeping up with the treatments—one class isn’t gonna kill me.” He looks up at Allura, his eyes soft and his lips formed into a small pout. _Damn, his puppy dog eyes are worse than Shiro’s._

 

Allura looks up at Lance, holding eye contact for a few moments before eventually closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, shoulders slumping as she leans forward. “Okay—but if you start to relapse I’m pulling your class.” She sits up, narrowing her eyes at Lance as she makes a note on her clipboard. “I’ll have a class as a backup just in case.” Wait—relapse? Is there something wrong with Lance?

 

Lance smiles widely and leans back in his chair, cupping the back of his head with his hands, elbows sticking out. “Alright—thanks Allura. You gonna be one of my dancers?”

 

Allura glances up at Lance and smiles crookedly, setting her pen down and resting her forearms on the table. “Of course. How else will I know if you’re pushing yourself too far?”

 

Lance pouts, his brows furring a bit as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Hey—“

 

“Is Eva gonna be the other dancer?” Allura asks, cutting Lance off before he could continue. When Lance nods she smiles widely, grabbing her clipboard as she stands up. “Perfect—I’ll ask her to bring muffins to our practices. It’ll be Friday—the last day of Free week—so we’ll have plenty of time to practice.” Allura leans over and gently taps Pidge’s shoulder to get their attention. When Pidge looks up she smiles crookedly. “You gonna work on the promo and media coverage?” When Pidge nods and gives a thumb up, Allura stands up straight and grins. “Well, that’s all for the meeting. Let’s get to work.” Allura quickly turns around, heading out of the conference room.

 

Everyone starts to file out, eager to start the work day. Keith remains seated, his eyes still glued on Lance as he stretches his arms above his head. He was curious, wanting to know what Allura was referring to, but not wanting to push boundaries. But he and Lance have gotten closer this past month, so maybe he could ask without worrying too much. He gets up and follows Lance out of the conference room, walking beside him in the hall for a few minutes before his curiosity got the best of him. “Is there something wrong with you?”

 

Lance looks over at Keith with a raised eyebrow, his head tilted slightly to the side as he looks over at the slightly smaller man beside him. “What? No—nothing’s wrong with me.”

 

Keith looks over at Lance, his brows furrowed slightly as he looks up at the Cuban. Why was Lance lying to him? “Yeah there is. What did Allura mean about a ‘repeat of last year’ and you ‘relapsing’?”

 

Lance takes in a sharp breath, tensing up beside Keith and crossing his arms defensively over his chest. Shit—that’s not a good sign. “It’s nothing—don’t worry about it.” Lance curtly responds, increasing the length of his strides to pull ahead of Keith.

 

Keith shoots a glare at Lance, about to go catch up to him when Nyma calls over the intercom. “Keith, your first client of the day is here.” He huffs as he looks towards Lance, his lips pressed into a thin line as he stares at the retreating figure. He turns to head towards the front desk, figuring he could talk to Lance during their free time.

 

He’s going to figure out what’s going on with Lance.

 

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

 

Keith was starting to get pissed. It’s been two weeks— _two weeks_ —and he still hasn’t learned anything new about the enigma that is Lance McCain. Any time that Keith tried to bring up what happened at the meeting Lance would either change the subject, leave to ‘fill out paperwork’, or go off to practice for his class on Friday. The class that no one wants to tell him what it is. He’s asked everyone—Allura, Coran, Hunk, Pidge, Eva—and no one would tell Keith anything. Hell—even _Shiro_ won’t tell him, saying that he ‘just had to see it in person’. Shiro usually tells him everything, so the fact that he’s suddenly tight lipped isn’t helping settle his nerves.

 

Free Week was in full swing, Voltron Gym filled almost to capacity. Keith was a bit overwhelmed the first day, but was able to get through it by hanging out with everyone during their brief moments of free time. The day before Free Week started, everyone decided to go to everyone’s event to show support. It was currently Tuesday—so that meant Allura’s Zumba class. (They went to Coran’s aqua Zumba class yesterday, and Keith’s legs are still sore—who knew water resistance was such a bitch?) Currently, Keith was standing next to Shiro, standing near the edge of the big dance studio—the one used for their bigger classes. It had more speakers lining the walls, a decently sized stage near the front, and a giant mirror-covered wall.  They had already done a warmup dance, as well as the dance to Psy’s song Daddy. Luckily the class was shorter than the usual class—so they only had one more song before cool down.

 

Allura turns around to address the giant crowd in the studio, adjusting the mic attacked to her ear as she pulls her hair out of her face and ties it up. “Everyone still doing okay?” Her voice echoes through the speakers so everyone could easily hear her. When she got a response of a few woops and cheers, she chuckles, glancing over the crowd one more time before shooting a smile over at Lance who was stationed beside her. “You say that now, but this song might make your legs and core sore. Lance helped me choreograph this, so that’s why.”

 

Lance chuckles, then Allura motions for Pidge to start the music. Lance and Allura turn around, getting into position as the [remixed song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImOecfevTu0) starts to play. The room starts to vibrate faintly with the bass, a small smile crossing Keith’s face as he feels the rumble through his chest. Allura and Lance spread their feet apart, bending their knees slightly and circle their hips to the beat, snapping their fingers as their hips finish a rotation. After every four rotations, they sink lower, continuing this pattern three more times before transitioning to the next move.

 

The beat picks up right as they transition, swaying their bodies back and forth and popping their shoulders, slowly rising back up close to their original position. Once there, they bend forward and cross one arm over to grab the crook of their elbow, swinging the other arm back and forth while they snap to the beat. Keith, Shiro, and a few of the regular Zumba class members were quickly picking up the dance, while Hunk, Coran, and all the new people struggled to keep up with the seemingly random transition changes. After swinging their arms and snapping four times, they start from the beginning of the section—swaying their bodies back and forth and popping their shoulders, then repeat the forward-bend and snap move. It wasn’t too hard to pick up—once you know to look for a pattern, it’s easy to predict what comes next.

 

 The chorus of the song starts, and Allura and Lance shift back into a partial squat, leaning over and popping their shoulders back and forth, then pausing and popping their shoulder twice to one side, then repeat the move again expect popping their shoulder to the other side. They follow this up with deepening the squat, then straightening their legs fully and saluting with one arm, then squatting again and saluting with the other arm. At this point, Keith knew they’d be repeating the same move from the beginning of the chorus, and he shifts into auto pilot, thinking that the rest of the song would just be repeated moves.

 

Of course, since Keith thought he knew what would happen, life would bite him in the ass. The song shifts to a more upbeat tone—obviously not part of the original song, and jumps as he gets slapped in the face with Shiro’s _metal_ prosthetic hand as he does the next move—a punch to the right and a step to the left. Keith shoots a glare at his brother, who just laughs and continues to dance—punching and stepping the opposite way before repeating the move twice on the other side. The only good thing about going to the Zumba classes before this was that Keith has gotten good at quickly getting back on track, easily mimicking Allura and Lance and making a mental note to pay more attention.

 

After repeating the (stupid) punch-step move again, Allura and Lance easily transition to the next move—pivoting on their left foot and stepping with the right, eventually making a full circle and crunching their abs, before repeating the move with the other foot. Keith just barely caught Lance staring at him before he was forced to turn around with the move, the Cuban looking all too pleased with himself up there.

 

Finally, they start repeating the moves from the very begging—the rotating hips and snapping motion—but Keith now knows better than to let his guard down. Much to Keith’s dismay, they do repeat the dance sequence again (this time Keith avoiding being punched in the face), and it wasn’t until they finished the circle-stomp move that a new step was introduced. The beat changes, and Allura and Lance step out, in, and out quickly, then squat down and pop their shoulders side to side. They repeat that move three more times, then the punch-step move made another appearance (seriously, why did they repeat that so much?). They did that move four times, then they do the stomp-pivot thing from earlier, followed by the out-in-out step move.

 

Keith had gotten better at not looking (ogling) Lance during the Zumba classes unless he was leading, but he couldn’t help but at least glance at him every once in a while. This time, Keith could see Lance making faces in the mirror at him, waggling his eyebrows as they do the shoulder-pop move that accompanied the in-out-in step move. Keith rolls his eyes but couldn’t help but smile, finding his antics to be endearing at times.

 

They only do the out-in-out step sequence three times before they transition to the next move, Allura and Lance rolling their upper bodies up until they were upright again. For the second time during this dance Keith messed up, keeping his back straight instead of arching it like he was supposed to. (He was still closer than some of the other people though, so a small victory.)

 

The beat changes slightly, and Allura and Lance squat down, repeating the shoulder-pop motion from earlier twice as they sway to the beat slightly. They easily transition to the squat-salute move, doing it twice before repeating the shoulder-pop motion two more times before repeating the squat-salute move two more times.

 

Just when Keith thought the pattern was complete, the punch-step move makes another appearance and he groans just loud enough for Shiro to hear. Keith blocks out the laugh he heard from his adoptive brother as he follows along with Allura and Lance as best he can. Luckily for Keith, they only did his (currently) most-despised move three times before Allura and Lance bent down to the side, then roll their torso upwards until they were upright—the opposite direction as the up-roll from before. There was a half-second pause in the music before it changes again, and the instructors transitioned to the next move.

 

Allura and Lance step forward, wiggling their shoulders and hips as they take eight steps forward with the beat—ending up against the mirrored glass before they started taking backward steps in the same fashion. Keith, still a bit awkward when he had to move two body parts in separate directions, moved stiffly and awkwardly during this section. The music gradually started to fade out and ended just when it looked like Allura and Lance were going to step off the stage.

 

 After the music ended they both took a few steps towards the center of the stage before turning around, Allura turning her mic back on and addressing the crowd. “Your legs burning yet?” There were a few groans mixed in with the cheers, causing a smirk to spread across the instructor’s face. “Well lucky for you we only have a cool down left before this class is over.”

 

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

 

For the rest of the week, Keith kept looking forward to Lance’s class on Friday—not that he was excited, he just wanted to fucking know what the big deal is. No one would tell him what Lance did last year—so he didn’t have any idea what to expect. Hell—he even tried spying on their practices. But Lance must have anticipated that because he covered the windows of their practice room, so the only way to look inside was to open the door (it was usually locked—Keith checked). If Lance knew about Keith’s spying, he wasn’t saying anything to him about it. He always acted normal whenever they saw each other at work (that is—until Keith tried to ask about his treatment—and injury). Keith was slowly packing up his things, trying to take as long as humanly possible so that he might be able to catch Lance practicing one more time when the lounge door opens.

 

“Hey there Quiche, what’s up?”

 

Keith turned around at the nickname, the corner of his lips twitching up as he spots the familiar silvery-blue haired girl walk into the employee lounge, carrying a bag full of baked pastries and a drink carrier filled with coffee. “I’m still not a quiche—but I’m fine.” He stands up and finishes putting on his clean shirt, then grabs the rest of his things out of the locker. “Whatcha doing back here? Your last dance class ended at Three.”

 

Eva sets the pastries and coffee down on the table near the center of the lounge, then takes a cup out of the carrier and holds it out towards Keith. “For practice—duh. Y’know I’m one of Lance’s backup dancers for the Friday showing, right?”

 

Keith takes the offered coffee cup, saying thanks before he takes a sip, letting the caffeine flow through his veins. “Oh, right. Yeah. Is there a reason for all the coffee and baked goods?”

 

Eva gets a cup for herself, taking a sip and leaning against the table. “Yeah, for the snack breaks—Lance wants us practicing until eight tonight to make sure the show goes well.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he sets his coffee cup on the bench so he can put his things into his gym bag. “He’s such a perfectionist.”

 

Eva hums in agreement, taking another sip of her coffee. “Yeah. You coming tomorrow?”

 

Keith nods, putting the shoulder strap of his bag over his shoulder and picking his coffee back up. “Yeah, we all agreed to go to everyone’s classes—you should have seen Lance try to lift weights. He can’t lift as much as he says he can.”

 

Eva snorts, then covers her mouth as she laughs. “God—he’s trying to impress you so hard.”

 

Keith flushes, tensing up and looking away, cheeks tinted pink. “He wasn’t--isn’t—whatever— What do I need to bring to the class?”

 

Eva smiles crookedly, standing up and patting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Just your pretty quiche-self. You and the others definitely won’t be able to actually participate in the class—besides, it’s more of a preview for the actual class anyway—which will be offered next week.”

 

Keith furrows his brows, crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight to his right foot, causing his hip to pop out slightly. “What makes you say that?”

 

Eva smirks, putting her coffee cup back in the drink carrier before picking up the carrier and pastries, then bumps her hip against Keith’s. “Oh, you’ll see. Prepare to pick your jaw off the floor.” With that, Eva turns and walks out of the employee lounge, leaving a bristling and slightly confused Keith with his thoughts.

 

Just what was Lance’s class? And why was there a possibility of relapse—and relapse of what?

 

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

 

Keith was never a patient person. If there was something he wanted, he took it. It took him years to learn any form of restraint. And right now, he wanted to know what the fuck Lance was hiding from him now—he’s already hiding why he hated Keith when they were in college, now he’s hiding a (potential) injury?

 

Needless to say, Keith was the first one to the classroom, surprised to see that the room was completely empty besides the sound system—the giant stage was removed, and Lance, Eva, and Allura were stretching towards the front of the room. Allura and Eva were wearing heels, and Lance was standing barefoot—though up front near the mirror Keith saw a pair of heels (the same ones Lance bought with him) waiting to be put on. They each had robes on, concealing their outfits from view.

 

Lance glances over and smiles widely as he sees Keith, bouncing over to the shorter male and smirking playfully. “Hey. Didn’t know you were so excited for my class. Looking forward to seeing me dance?” He coos playfully, leaning forward a bit and resting his arms on Keith’s shoulders.

 

Keith blushes, leaning back slightly to add some distance between them, looking over his shoulder and glaring at his reflection in the mirror.  “No—I’m not.”

 

Lance chuckles, leaning back and turning around, shrugging as he makes his way back over towards Allura and Eva. “If you say so~” He coos, turning his head and winking at Keith before he goes to put on his heels.

 

Keith scoffs, running a hand through his hair as he turns away. Soon after, Nyma starts letting the general public in—and Shiro and Hunk join Keith on the floor. Pidge and Coran were in the back, situated on a podium so they could play audio and record the dance for later.

 

All too soon, it was time for the class to start. The lights towards the back of the studio turn off, and Lance turns on the mic that was on a stand towards the front. “Hey everyone!” Lance was answered by tons of cheers, causing the Cuban to smile widely and chuckle. “Okay, I know you love me, but we gotta get this show on the road, kay? I need you guys to form a circle-there’s a good portion of movement in this year’s dance, and I want to make sure everyone can see.” The crowd starts to form, creating a broad semi-circle around the trio at the front. “Thanks guys—now can the people in the front either sit or kneel down? I want to make sure everyone can see—maybe let the shorter people towards the front.” There was some shuffling in the crowd as everyone complies. Keith, Shiro, and Hunk were already standing closer to the back, but they let a few of the shorter people up front. Keith huffs, wondering just when Lance was going to start.

Lance smiles, taking the mic off the stand and resting his arm on top, popping his hip out to the side. “Awesome—now, those who’ve come to these shows before know the drill, but I’m gonna explain again for the new people. This isn’t the actual class—I know, shocker—it’s a preview of the class that I’m offering next week. Obviously, there’s a lot of moves that people aren’t gonna be able to pick up in one class, so that’s why the actual classes are next week. If you guys sign up for a class before we close today, you’ll still get the class for free. If not, you’ll have to pay, sorry guys.”

 

Lance puts the mic back on the stand, then smiles crookedly as he slips off his blue robe, revealing pastel blue booty shorts and a white mesh crop top. The crowd started to whoop and whistle, causing Lance to chuckle and toss the robe out of the way. “Calm down guys—we haven’t started yet.” Eva and Allura remove their robes, each wearing booty shorts, but Eva had a baggy, off the shoulder sweater on, and Allura was wearing a hot pink tank top. Lance looks over his shoulder and smiles at the pair, then turns back to the mic. “If you enjoy, consider taking the class.” There were a few claps as Lance turns off the mic, then moves the stand out of the way.

 

Lance turns, facing away from the crowd and smiling crookedly as he closes his eyes. Eva stands towards his left, Allura to his right—just a few paces in front of him. The crowd falls silent, and before long music starts to play through the speakers. Keith recognized the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY6EkIKq1gc)—wondering what Lance was planning with this particular Lady Gaga song.

 

Lance, Eva, and Allura look over their shoulders, a crooked smile on Lance’s face as they mouth along with the spoken words. “I am so fab.” They each fan a hand next to their face, Lance fluttering his eye lashes. Eva turns around, popping her hip out as she runs a hand through her hair. “Check out, I’m blonde,” Lance turns around, sliding his hands from his hips up towards his chest. “I’m skinny,” Allura turns around, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she rests her hand against her popped out hip, nose turned up in the air slightly as she rubs her thumb against her index and middle finger. “I’m rich,” The trio take two steps forward, swaying their hips as they walk, “and I’m a little bit of a bitch.” They all turn slightly and lean forward, Eva and Lance reaching out and slapping the ass of the person in front of them right as the music picks up. Keith’s eyes widen a bit, not expecting to _ever_ see his childhood friend—and his boss—get their ass smacked in a room full of at least a hundred onlookers.

 

The trio takes two steps towards the right at an angle before bending down with their arms outstretched, then lift their arms above their heads as they stand up straight. Not a second after standing up, they bend forward again, running their hands along the back of their head and down their body, resting a hand on their hip as the other slides down their legs to hold their ankle, then quickly slide back up straight. They turn around—not just by turning, but by pivoting slightly as they squat down quickly, just to quickly come back up, facing towards the other side.  They turn around to face the original side they were on, Lance’s hand placed on the small of his back.

 

They pop their shoulders forward, then do this cross-arm movement that was too fast for Keith to catch before the trio turned around again, their hands briefly crossing their bodies to rest on their sides before spreading their arms out and popping their hips to one side then the other. When they looked over their shoulders towards the crowd, Keith made the mistake of looking at Lance’s eyes, making direct eye contact with royal blue, sultry eyes. Lance’s hand was gently caressing his own face, his other hand resting on his hip. Keith could easily imagine that Lance’s hands are his own, wanting to map out his body with his hands and tongue—

 

Nope. Not the time for gay thoughts.

 

Lance, Eva, and Allura kick their heel up, crossing it over the leg they were stand on as they pop their arm out in the same direction they kicked their heel up. Using the momentum of the kick, they step out into the next move, stepping twice before sliding a leg out to the side, popping their shoulder up on the opposite side before standing up straight, biceps tight to their sides with their forearms and hands spread out—only for a second before one hand goes to their neck as their head tilts back, the other resting just below their bellybuttons.

 

Keith’s eyes were wide as he watches the trio dance—or more like watch Lance dance. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from how quickly and precisely that Lance moved to the music.  He kinda wished he knew more dance terms so he could properly describe what he was seeing. While Lance usually moved his body smoothly—like waves rolling against a beach—this time he was more ridged, precise, each movement perfectly calculated. His expression blank besides the fire lit behind his eyes.

 

Lance, Eva, and Allura took a step forward, raising their hands to rest behind their heads, crunching their elbows together before they take three steps back, waving a hand in front of them with their index finger pointed up. The hand that they waved in front of them sweeps behind their head as they spin, stopping when they face towards the side, popping their shoulders a bit as they rest their hands on their hips. The trio turns a bit towards the back and pivots, then turns around to face the front in order to cross their back leg in front, snapping their right arm in front of them. They sweep their other arm in front of them, stepping back so their feet are shoulder width apart, tapping their hand on the other in a closed fist before bending their knees a bit, rolling their head quickly and using the momentum to lead them into a turn.

 

After taking two steps out of the turn, they plant their right foot forward, bending the leg slightly and stretching their arms up straight before miming putting a tiara on their head. With a quick shift of the hips, the leg planted in front shift in a move that Keith could only describe as somehow being related to the mashed potato—though this looked a lot better. For the first time since the beginning of the song, the next move doesn’t involve leg movement—just resting their hands on their hips before crossing their arms over their chest to touch their shoulders, then laces their hands together in front of their chest before sweeping their forward leg behind them and kicking it up.

 

Just as quickly as they kicked their legs up, they were stomped back down as they transitioned to the next move. _How can they move that fast?_ The trio leans towards the left, rolling their head that way before fully turning. They quickly put one hand out forward, the other resting on their chests as they pop their chests out twice, then kick their leg up quickly to pivot and slides their leg out. Lance glances over at Keith briefly, sliding his hand down his outstretched leg, his ass more prominent the further down he bent towards his ankle. Shit—Keith might not survive this.

 

Before Keith knows it, Lance is on the floor (along with Eva and Allura, but he’s stopped paying attention to them at this point—he’s been drawn in by Lance’s legs and ass), sitting up straight with his legs out together in front of him. Lance lightly drags his fingertips along the floor, glancing out towards the audience as he bends completely in half, touching his toes and sliding his right leg up slowly as he leans back. Once he was upright again, Lance slides his right hand back, tossing his head back quickly before he snaps up, cupping the back of his head as his left leg bends to match the right. Lance leans back fully, his back against the floor and his arms laying out beside him. He lifts his legs, alternating between the left and the right before crossing them at the knee, his hands coming up to rest on his knees as he looks out at the audience. Lance breaks eye contact as he slowly rolls over, keeping his feet up until he ends up back on his ass, then effortlessly stands up as if the three-inch heels don’t hinder him at all.

 

Keith visibly swallows, unable to move as he watches his coworker. He knew Lance was sexy and attractive—he’s known that since day one—but _this_ is a whole new level. Before Lance was more of a ‘party boy you’d have a one night stand with at a bar’ sexy, _this_ Lance is ‘rival the Greek gods and make Aphrodite start a war’ sexy. The level of attractiveness that shallow people look for in a partner but rarely ever achieved. If it wasn’t for work, there’d be no reason for Lance to even hang out with Keith. He tried to ignore the pang in his chest at the thought, pushing it away to deal with it another day. Now, he just wanted to memorize how Lance’s body moved and just how fucking _flexible_ this boy was—does he have any bones at all?

 

The beat changes in the music, the trio turning around and walking forward, hips swaying to the beat. Keith’s eyes were glued on Lance, his eyes quickly drifting down to his hips as he moved. Lance plants his feet shoulder width apart, causing Keith’s eyes to jerk up to his face—he could swear that Lance would be smirking at Keith’s open gawking but his face remained the same as when the routine started. Lance throws one of his arms out, swinging it on front of him before reaching out with both arms towards the side and steps to the left. Keith tried to quickly follow Lance’s arm movements as they rapidly cross and uncross in front of him, but he couldn’t track the movement. Before he knows it, Lance is kneeling down, looking towards the crowd again as he rises back up, a hand slowly sliding up his shin to his thigh.

 

In a quick flash of movement, Lance was fully facing forward, his hand reaching down and grabbing his junk as his hips and torso quickly roll to the beat. Keith’s jaw falls open, a bright blush creeping up from his neck all the way towards his ears. He was absolutely speechless, his thoughts running a mile a minute through the filthiest gutter in existence—thinking about Lance moving his lips like that as he takes his dick up the ass—Keith finally snaps out of his thoughts, shaking his head to try to clear them away. _NO. Work is not the time for homosexual thoughts about your coworker!_

 

When Keith was _finally_ able to clean his mind enough to start paying attention again, the trio was already further along in the dance, walking in an arch before spinning out towards the front, Lance raising his arms up as he finishes the spin. They stop and pivot, turning towards the other side of the room, raising their arms up in an arch as they turn, their hands resting near their hips as they shift their weight, kicking up the foot they were just standing on. Keith’s eyes narrow in on Lance again, noticing him take two steps closer to their side of the room before he stops to push his hips back, running his hands up his torso a bit before turning in a circle and planting his feet firmly. Lance sways his body back and forth, popping his shoulders with the beat and repeating the shoulder pop on the same side twice, then puts his feet together, resting a hand on his elbow before lifting his arms up. He steps out, then bends forward and moves his torso in a circle before popping up, bending one knee as he reaches an arm out, index finger pointed upward. Lance rests his other hand on his hip, waving his extended hand back and forth with the beat twice before planting his feet together, putting his hand over his mouth.

 

Lance holds out one hand and looks down at it, then taps the center of it with his other hand with the beat. Keith could just barely see Lance mouthing along with the lyrics, causing a smile to pull up the corner of his lips. Lance looks back up at the audience, taking three steps back as he moves his arms in two small circles in front of him. Keith sees movement out of his peripheral vision, glancing up to see that Eva and Allura had switched places— _when the fuck did that happen_? Lance steps out, swaying his body back and forth with the music, hips popping on the beat and occasionally jumping from side to side. _How the fuck can he jump in heels, but he can’t jump on the jumping block?_ They transition to the next move, standing up straight as they seem to glide backwards, hands raising elegantly in front of them, carrying the movement into a gentle spin. Lance raised his arms upward, Eva had one arm raised and the other stretched out beside her, and Allura’s arms were a mirror image of Eva’s.

 

Keith blinks as the trio paused, wondering if this was the end of the routine when no one moved, but the song was still playing. Very slowly, Lance, Eva, and Allura started to move, leisurely putting their hands on their hips and walking forward gracefully (maybe some sort of model walk?). The trio split up and started walking around the circle, Eva slowly running a hand through her hair during her walk, Allura poised regally as she walks her section before arching back towards her position, and Lance runs the back of his hand across his cheek and down his neck, making direct eye contact with Keith. Keith’s breath hitches in his throat, his blush coming back in full force. _Why the hell are his eyes so blue—and why is he making bedroom eyes at me?!_ After what seemed like an eternity (but in reality, was only five seconds), the beat in the music picks back up and Lance is turning away, causing Keith to let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. _What the fuck Lance._

 

Lance, Eva, and Allura continue to walk around aimlessly, their hips swaying back and forth. Occasionally one of them does a quick turn, but after about ten seconds the song ends, obviously edited to make it shorter, with the three of them posed the same way as when the song started. There was a brief moment of silence, before the audience started to applaud and cheer. Lance turns around and smiles widely, his smile seeming to make the whole studio brighter. He walks over to the microphone and turns it up, looking around the audience. He waits for the cheers to calm down, popping his hip out and chuckling quietly. “I’m gonna guess you guys liked it?” There were a few more cheers, and Lance covered the microphone to conceal his laugh again. “Well remember—if you sign up before you leave, you can take the class for free, so don’t miss out.” He turns off the mic, then blows out a kiss towards the audience before turning back towards Eva and Allura.

 

The crowd starts to disperse, some just walking out the doors, while some went to the sign-up sheet to register for the class. Shiro turns towards Keith, a knowing smirk on his face as he reaches over and puts a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Keith tenses up, then slowly glances towards his brother before scowling, his brother nodding towards Lance before wiggling his brows. Keith tenses up more and takes a step away, crossing his arms defensively over his chest, huffing. “What?”

 

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Shiro sing-songs, lacing his fingers behind his back before slowly walking towards the trio. “Just try to tone down your eye fucking next time.”

 

Keith blushes brightly and squeaks, his nails digging into his forearms with how tightly he was gripping them. “S-Shiro!” Shiro just laughs, leaving his brother with Hunk. Keith takes in a slow, even breath, then slowly glances towards Hunk, an anxious smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “So, what do I have to do to keep you from telling Lance?”

 

Hunk hums, crossing his arm over his chest and holding his chin between his finger and thumb. “I don’t know man, he’s my best friend. However, with how dense he is, he probably didn’t notice—so I should tell him. But if you bought me a coffee…” He trails off, looking over at Keith and giving him the biggest shit-eating grin Keith’s ever saw.

 

Keith takes in a deep breath before smiling nervously, shifting his weight from foot-to-foot. “Thanks, it means a lot.”

 

Hunk pats Keith’s shoulder and smiles warmly, then starts guiding them towards where their friends were talking. “No problem buddy.”

 

Keith and Hunk finally approach the group, quickly joined by Pidge and Coran. Keith glances around at everyone, his eyes landing on Eva’s, seeing her knowing smirk. Keith blushes a bit, quickly miming his lips being zippered as he shoots Eva a glare. She rolls her eyes, but repeats the zipper motion, a small smile on her face. Keith sighs, glad that everyone (who’s noticed) promised not to say anything about his attraction to Lance, and starts to slowly relax.

 

Eva smiles crookedly, making eye contact with Keith as she bumps her hip against Lance’s. “Hey Lance, you haven’t asked Keith what he thought about the dance yet.”

 

_Fucking shit_

 

Lance instantly turns to look at Keith, his eyes wide and kilowatt smile turned on. “Keith!” He walks over to Keith, hips not swaying as drastically as earlier, and favoring his left leg over the other. He stops in front of Keith and tilts his head, smiling wider as he rests his arm on Keith’s shoulder. “How did you like the dance?”

 

Keith’s brows furrow as he watches Lance walk over. _Is he limping?_ Completely forgetting how he was drooling over Lance when he was dancing, he reaches out and holds onto the taller man, having to tilt his head up to look at Lance’s face. “It was fine—why are you limping?”

 

Lance tenses up a bit and looks away, trying to move away, but Keith just tightens his hold. “It’s nothing—“

 

“It’s not nothing! You’re obviously hurting if you’re limping!” Keith barked out, holding Lance up to try to take some of the weight off his feet.

 

Allura appears next to Lance, putting a hand on his shoulder as she lets out a heavy sigh, squeezing Lance’s shoulder. “I told you that it was too soon—you don’t want to get surgery again, do you?”

 

Lance winces, hanging his head and whispering softly. “…no.”

 

Keith looks between Lance and Allura, wrapping his arms more securely around Lance. “Surgery on what?”

 

Allura looks at Lance, rubbing his back gently. “Why don’t you tell him, Lance?” Lance quickly shakes his head, biting his bottom lip. Allura sighs, looking over at Keith, her brows creased in worry. “Can you help Lance home?”

 

Keith nods, gently rubbing Lance’s side to try to calm him down. “Yeah, sure.”

 

Allura smiles, patting Keith’s shoulder. “Thanks, we’ll handle closing today." Allura turns around, going to grab Lance’s things.

 

In one quick motion, Keith swoops down, tucking his forearm under Lance’s knees and picks him up in a bridal carry. Lance screams, arms latching around Keith’s neck and clinging to him like a vice. “Keith holy crow—“

 

A smile tugs at the corner of Keith’s mouth, then starts walking towards the employee lounge. “What? This is gonna be the quickest way back.” Keith glances down at Lance just in time to see him tuck his head down, mumbling under his breath. Were the tips of his ears red?

 

Keith helps Lance put on his sweatpants, sweatshirt, and tennis shoes—his booty shorts, mesh crop top, and high heels not appropriate for the chilly weather outside (winter was coming), then packs up both their things and head outside to the parking lot—this time Keith giving Lance a piggy back ride “ _because he still has some dignity”_. Lance insisted they take his car, saying that they’d die on Keith’s motorcycle. They debated back and forth before Keith gives into Lance, texting Shiro to drop off his bike sometime before driving Lance home. Lance was unusually quiet the whole ride to his apartment besides mumbling a few directions for Keith to follow. For once, Keith doesn’t push Lance to talk, knowing Lance wouldn’t open up any time soon. When they got to Lance’s apartment building, Keith parks and helps Lance get to his apartment. _“What kind of apartment doesn’t have an elevator?” “One that’s only $575 a month with utilities.”_

 

Lance offered to call Keith a cab, but he declined, saying that he only lived a few blocks away—which he realized on the drive over. After making sure Lance was safely in his apartment, Keith starts making his way down the stairs. His thoughts drift to Lance, wondering what kind of injury he had, and why he was so reluctant to talk about it. And why was it so serious it needed surgery to fix it? Why wouldn’t Lance get the surgery? When Keith stepped outside the apartment building he lets out a heavy sigh, his breath fogging slightly as he starts to walk down the street to his building.

 

It looks like he wouldn’t be solving the mystery that is Lance McClain any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens 
> 
> *DUN DUN DUUUUUUN* 
> 
> Comments/Kudos always appreciated (even constructive criticism, always looking to improve) 
> 
> and feel free to hmu on tumblr @mammahen either about the fic or just to scream about Voltron


	6. Lets....Celebrate?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith just wanted to watch Netflix at home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I totally meant to update before this, but I had a lil vacay with my friends before they graduated (lil' drama happened thats still trying to get worked out), then I had to unpack from college which took up my time. But chapter six is out! Already started work on Ch. 7 so fingers crossed I can get it out soon
> 
> Enjoy!

“Shiro, I don’t feel like going out tonight.” Keith sighs into his phone, sitting on his couch in boxers, a t-shirt, and a towel draped over his shoulders. He had just gotten out of the shower when Shiro decided to call.

 

“C’mon lil’ bro—it’s not like we’re going clubbing. It’s just a little office gathering at Allura’s house tonight.”

 

Keith tilts his head back to rest on the back of the couch, closing his eyes as he sighs heavily. “Why don’t I believe you?”

 

“Keith, when was the last time I lied to you?”

 

“You told me that you and Matt were ‘just friends’ then I caught you sucking his dick in the garage.” Keith smirks, hearing Shiro stutter and knock something over on his side of the line. Good.

 

“That was high school! When was the last time I’ve lied to you since then?”

 

Keith turns his body so he can lay down, crossing his ankles and resting them on the arm rest of the couch. “My sophomore year of college you told me that Allura wasn’t interested in dating you, and a week later you started dating her AND Matt.”

 

Shiro groans and Keith hears a cup slam on a hard surface—probably the counter top or table. “When was the last time I lied _not_ concerning my relationships?”

 

“Sophomore year again, you said if I went to a frat party nothing would happen and you had to pick me up from the police station.”

 

“Your drunken antics are not my fault—I’m your brother, not your babysitter.” Shiro sighs, his tone getting softer. “C’mon, you’re already friends with everyone at work, why not hang out outside of work? Lance is gonna be there.”

 

Keith’s heart skips a beat at the thought of seeing Lance and his scowl deepens. What the fuck? He wasn’t a teenager anymore—he shouldn’t be having this kind of reaction. He rolls over onto his side, his tone growing softer as he mumbles hesitantly. “…so?”

 

“You know I know—you should just tell him how you feel.” Shiro hums, the faint sound of tapping in the background.

 

Keith groans, rolling off of his couch and onto his living room floor, just wanting to watch Netflix until his brain died and he forgot about his confusing feelings for his sexy coworker. “Nope. Not happening.”

 

“…I’ll tell Lance about you gawking at him yesterday—“

 

Keith’s eyes snap open, quickly sitting up as he yells into the phone. “SHIRO DON’T YOU DARE—“

 

“The party starts at 7, make sure to bring an overnight bag with a change of clothes.” Shiro chuckles, hanging up before Keith could protest. Keith falls back down onto the floor and groans, letting his phone slip just out of reach as he lays there. Shiro wouldn’t tell Lance…would he? No. Shiro may be a pain in the ass at times, but he wasn’t an actual ass. Though there was that time Shiro told their neighbor that Keith had a crush on him (granted, that was when they were 8 and 12), but that meant there was still the possibility.

 

Keith eventually manages to roll onto his side, glaring at the dust bunnies living under his couch as he tries to decide what he’s going to do. If he goes, he’s gonna be around Lance—the source of all his conflicting emotional issues lately—but if he doesn’t, then there’s the possibility of Shiro telling Lance about his feelings (feelings he wasn’t even sure about yet) and he didn’t want to ruin his already shaky friendship with Lance. Honestly, he’s surprised that Lance hasn’t been able to tell—it’s not like Keith is that subtle (he doesn’t have a poker face AT ALL). Everyone at work knows—he’s basically everyone’s coffee bitch at this point with all of them blackmailing him about his feelings. Maybe Lance is just dense…. really, really dense.

 

His phone vibrates, pulling him out of his thoughts as the small device shakes violently and vibrating further out of reach. Keith huffs, wiggling towards his phone just enough so he could reach it and see who was texting him. He tilts the screen up towards him, tapping the home button to light up the screen again.

 

Shitto: well?

 

Of course it’s Shiro—who the fuck else would it be? Keith faceplants into the carpet, tired of trying to think of what to do. When did he become so indecisive? He used to do whatever the fuck he wanted with no problem. Granted, he did a bunch of shit that got him in trouble on multiple occasions. He’s made a lot of enemies. Maybe he’s having this issue now because he actually cares about the consequences of his actions?

 

_Fuck it._ Don’t think, just do. He lifts his head up and quickly texts out his response, hitting send before he could change his mind.

 

Keith: whats the address and do I need to bring anything?

Shitto: I’ll pick you up for the party, and just bring your toothbrush and a change of clothes.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, wondering what kind of work party required sleepwear and a toothbrush?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Shiro, known to be extra punctual, let himself into Keith’s apartment at 5:45 to pick him up. Keith was nowhere near ready (You’d think after all these years he’d learn, but no.) While Keith scrambled to get ready—arguing with Shiro that arriving almost an hour early to a party was _definitely_ not a good idea—Shiro went ahead and packed a small duffle bag of clothes and toiletries for Keith.

 

 A quick fifteen-minute drive lead them to Allura’s; a Victorian style house located just outside the city. Her father, Alfor, signed over the house to her name once Voltron Gym started to expand to other locations and he moved to be closer to the new locations. Basically, she had a giant 6 bedroom, 4 ½ bathroom house all to herself. At least that made it easier for when she hosted parties and had guests staying over.

 

Shiro parks in the driveway next to Allura’s car, turning off the engine before hopping out and heading towards the front door. Keith takes a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for all the extra socializing he has to do today. Making sure to grab his bag, he soon follows after Shiro, walking into the front door that was cracked open slightly. He hesitates just inside the doorway, looking around for his brother. He peeks into the sitting room adjacent to the atrium, then follows Shiro into the kitchen where he was cuddling his girlfriend. Keith sets his bag down on a chair, scrunching up his face in disgust. “Gross, get a room.”

 

Shiro rolls his eyes as Allura smirks, nudging Shiro’s side before pulling away. “I own the house, so I technically have a room—all of them.” From the living room, there was the sound of someone going “ooooo” and Keith turns his head to see who it was, smiling as he sees a familiar tuff of brown hair.

 

“Matt, nice to see you again.”

 

Matt smiles from his spot on the couch, waving briefly before returning back to his laptop. He pushes his glasses up from where they slipped down his nose, speaking to Keith but looking at his laptop. “Likewise—how did you convince the hermit to come out of his cave, babe?”

 

Shiro smirks, walking over and sitting on the couch next to Matt, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Told him that a certain someone would be coming over tonight. He agreed instantly.”

 

Keith blushes, cheeks tinted pink out of embarrassment. “Th-That’s not why! And it wasn’t instantly!”

 

Allura shakes her head, patting Keith’s shoulder before walking over to join her boyfriends on the couch. “Keep telling yourself that.”

 

Keith crosses his arms over his chest and shoots a glare over at the couple. “Did you guys want me here for the party or just to watch you be gross and couple-y on the couch?”

 

Allura chuckles, leaning against Matt’s side as he continues typing away on his laptop. “The party—Shiro isn’t much of an exhibitionist. You can go put your bag in the first bedroom to the left at the top of the stairs—we don’t want you trying to drive home after drinking.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, picking up his bag and heading towards the staircase, calling to the trio over his shoulder. “I didn’t need to know that—and Shiro drove so I can’t leave anyway.” He starts making his way up the stairs, desperate to get away from the couple before anything _really_ gross started happening.

 

Tonight was gonna be a long night.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It wasn’t long before Shiro dragged Keith out of the guest bedroom to help finish setting up for the party. He helped Shiro put up more streamers around the banners, and was in the middle of helping Allura put out some various kinds of alcohol and plastic cups on the island in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure why they needed to have so much alcohol—he was told this was supposed to be a work party—but Allura just shrugged it off when he asked. At seven (when the party was supposed to actually start) Pidge and Hunk arrived, Hunk bringing enough food to feed an army and Pidge bringing even more alcohol. _Do they all want to get alcohol poisoning?_ It wasn’t until almost seven thirty when Lance finally arrived with a giant duffle bag and tote bag, then Allura said the party could actually begin. Everyone made themselves something to drink before settling down around the table to eat some of the food that Hunk brought for dinner. So far everything was going along like a typical dinner party—if you ignored all the alcohol in the kitchen. Keith glanced towards the island in the kitchen, the countertop covered by cups and alcohol. Just what were they gonna do with that?

 

When dinner was all cleared up, everyone headed into the living room to continue chatting. It wasn’t until closer to eight that Pidge smirked mischievously and looked towards Lance. “You think it’s time for drinking games?” 

 

Lance’s eyes lit up and a big smile spread across his face, bouncing up and down at his seat on the couch. “Yeah! I brought a ton for us to choose from!” He leaped out of his seat towards his tote bag that was left in the corner, bringing it back to his seat before plopping down again. “Whatcha guys in the mood for? Kings Cup? Beer pong? Pennies? Et cetera?”

 

Allura sits down next to Shiro and smiles widely, sipping on her beverage. “Did you bring Drunk Jenga?”

 

Lance pulls out a Jenga box from his bag, smirking and raising an eyebrow. “Of course I did Princess.”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, taking a small sip of his rum and coke as he looks at the box in Lance’s hand. “What’s drunk Jenga?”

 

Lance gasps, putting his free hand on his chest as he looks over at Keith. “What?! Okay so we’re totally playing this first since Keith has no fucking idea what this game is.” He kneels down in front of the coffee table, taking out the sleeve and carefully sliding the blocks onto the table.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow quizzically, setting his drink down. “That didn’t answer my question.”

 

Hunk pats Keith’s shoulder, shaking his head with a fond smile on his face. “It’s just like regular Jenga, just with drinking involve.” Hunk then goes to sit next to Lance, taking the handwritten rule sheet from the box. “Basically, we all take turns picking a tile, then whatever picture or phrase is written on the bottom decides what we do.”

 

Keith pouts a bit, his brows furrowed slightly. That didn’t sound too hard. He slowly slips off of the couch, ending up sitting beside Lance as he finishes straightening out the tower. “That doesn’t sound too hard.”

 

Lance smirks, glancing over at Keith before sitting up straight. “You say that now, but you’ll get so shitfaced it’s not even funny.”

 

Allura grins, standing up and picking up her cup. “I’m gonna go top off before we start—and try to convince Matt to step away from his laptop long enough to play with us.” She heads into the kitchen, humming softly under her breath.

 

“Good luck—he’s more attached to his laptop than I am.” Pidge rolls her eyes and pulls out her laptop, pulling up Spotify and putting music on in the background. Some random alternative station starts playing through the home speakers, quiet enough not to deter conversation, but loud enough to fill any silence.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, taking a sip from his cup as he looks over at the brunette. “Do I wanna know how your laptop is connected to Allura’s stereo system?”

 

Pidge smirks, sipping their drink as they set their laptop on the recliner behind them. “Nope.”

 

Shiro and Allura walk back into the living room, smilingly victoriously as they pull Matt behind them. “Alright. Now we can start the game.” Allura smiles, sitting down on the opposite side of the coffee table from everyone else.

 

Shiro sits down next to Allura, and Matt sits down on Shiro’s other side, reaching over and ruffling Pidge’s hair. “I gotta make sure my little sibling doesn’t get too intoxicated.”

 

Pidge huffs, knocking Matt’s hand away and frowning. “Shut up, you’re a bigger lightweight than I am.”

 

Lance snaps his fingers and huffs. “Not now Holts—we got a game to play and Keith to get drunk.” Keith huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. He opens his mouth to protest but Lance covers his mouth with his hand before he could. “I’ll go first, then we’ll go clockwise around the circle. Should we play the easy way or the hard way? We don’t wanna overwhelm the newbie”

 

Keith frowns, leaning back to free his mouth from Lance’s grip so he could speak. “Hey—I can take whatever you dish out.” He huffs, leaning his back against the couch behind him.

 

Lance cocks up an eyebrow, then leans back and smirks confidently, crossing his arms to mimic Keith as he shrugs his shoulders. “Alright—hard way—stacking the bricks back on top. I’ll go first.” He leans forward, taking a middle block out carefully. “Aha!” He flips the tile over to see the drawing underneath, groaning at the set of legs and the cursive ‘real slim shady’ written on the bottom. “Fuck—I always get this one.” He stands up, setting the tile carefully back on the stack and crossing his arms over his chest.

 

Keith blinks, looking up at the taller male next to him from his position on the floor. “uh…why are you standing up?”

 

Shiro smiles, sipping his drink before answering Keith’s question. “He got the real slim shady tile—he has to stand for the remainder of the game and if he sits down he has to drink.”

 

Keith furrows his brow, wondering why that was a tile in a drinking game. “Uh…. okay?”

 

Hunk shrugs, reaching over to gently take his own tile. “Don’t question it—it just makes it confusing.” He turns his tile over, reading what it said underneath. “Gary Coleman—Pidge is the shortest—you gotta drink up.”

 

Pidge puffs out their cheeks, taking a sip of their beverage. “If Eva was here we could drink together.” 

 

“Wait—there are tiles that make other people drink?” Keith asks, tilting his head slightly as he looks over at Hunk.

 

Hunk smiles and nods, placing his tile back on top of the stack. “Yep—keeps everyone on their toes.”

 

Allura reaches in to pick up her tile, deciding to be daring and taking an edge tile near the bottom. “Plus it gets people drunker faster.” She reads her tile, then wickedly smirks before showing the tile to everyone in the circle. “Waterfall bitches!” Everyone groans, including Keith (he at least knew what waterfall meant in terms of drinking games). Once Allura put the tile carefully on top, she picks up her cup and starts to drink, everyone in the circle following suit one after the other. Keith made the mistake of taking big gulps, already halfway through his beverage before Pidge (who was sitting next to him) finally put down their cup. He was about to do the same, when he glances over at the man still standing next to him. Lance somehow manages to smirk as he kept drinking, silently challenging Keith to keep going. Keith furrows his brows, tipping his cup back and proceeding to down the rest of his beverage. Pidge and Allura whoop as Keith slams his empty cup on the table, Lance taking three more sips before putting down his cup and sighing happily. Keith shoots a glare at Lance, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

 

Hunk groans, being on the unfortunate end of the waterfall. “Oh my god Keith—you’re just as bad as Lance.” The Samoan stands up, picking up his now-empty cup and going to get a refill.

 

Lance pouts as he looks at his cup for a few seconds, then nudges Keith with his foot. “Whatcha drinking?”

 

Keith blinks, glancing from his empty cup then back up to Lance. “Rum and coke—“ Lance takes the cup from Keith, easily stepping over him to head towards the kitchen. “Hey!”

 

“Relax mullet, I’m getting you a refill.” Lance looks over his shoulder at Keith, winking before vanishing into the kitchen, hips swaying slightly as he walks.

 

 Keith blushes, crossing his arms and purposefully looking away from Lance. Shiro smiles crookedly, nudging Keith with his foot under the coffee table. Keith shoots a glare over at his brother, kicking his foot away. “What?”

 

Pidge wiggles their brows, nudging Keith gently. “Y’know what.”

 

Shiro sips his drink, lowering his voice and leaning in closer. “Seriously, just ask him out.”

 

“Ask who out?” Matt asks, leaning in to the impromptu circle to get in on the gossip.

 

Keith blushes brightly, leaning back against the sofa and huffing. “No one—“

 

“Lance.” Allura nonchalantly replies, sipping her drink. Matt ‘ooos’, raising his eyebrows suggestively at Keith.

 

Keith’s eyes widen, stuttering slightly. “Wha—“

 

Lance and Hunk return to the living room, the thinner male handing Keith his cup. “There ya go. Who’s turn is it?”

 

Shiro shoots Keith a look, implying that they were gonna continue this later, before raising his hand. “Mine. I wanted to wait for our Slim Shady to come back in case he needed to drink.”

 

Lance smiles crookedly, popping his hip out and cooing softly. “My, how sweet. A true gentleman.”

 

Hunk reaches up and pats Lance’s leg, chuckling softly. “You can flirt with Allura’s boyfriend later. Let’s get back to playing.”

 

Shiro leans forward, sticking out his tongue slightly as he tries to finesse a block from the stack, taking the opposite edge from Allura’s previous turn. Lance groans, tilting his head back and slouching. “Shiro, I take that back—you’re an ass.”

 

Shiro smirks and shrugs, turning the tile to check out the bottom. “Disco minute.” He groans, standing up and putting the tile on top carefully. “Okay, who’s picking the song this time?”

 

Lance’s eyes light up and he raises his hand. “Oh! Oh! Me! I wanna!”

 

 “No, the last time you did I had to do the chicken dance.” Pidge gripes, pinching the bridge of their nose and shaking their head.

 

Matt smirks, taking Pidge’s laptop to search for a song. “Oh I got the perfect song in mind.” He turns up the volume of the speakers, the sound of ABBA filling the room.

 

Shiro groans, running a hand through his tuff of white hair. “Seriously--?”

 

Lance smiles widely and claps his hands together, his hips already swaying to the music. “C’mon Shiro! It’s a classic!”

 

Allura and Hunk both take out their phones to record, Hunk snickering behind his hand. Lance bounces around the table, taking Shiro’s hand as he sings along to the music. “You can dance~ You can Ji-ive! Having the time of your life, ooo! See that girl~ Watch that scene~ Digging the dancing queen~” Shiro groans as he half-heartedly dances along with Lance, who was doing typical disco moves as he continued to sing along a bit off key. Keith couldn’t help but laugh as Lance starts shimmying around Shiro, only stopping once Shiro shimmies as well.

 

No one was actually keeping time, it wasn’t until Hunk noticed that his video was almost two minutes long that he stopped recording and put down his phone. “Okay guys, minute is over.”

 

Shiro lets out a sigh of relief and plops down on his spot on the floor. “Finally.” He takes a long sip of his drink, Lance leaning down and resting his forearms on Shiro’s shoulders, hips still swaying to the beat.

 

“Such a party pooper.” Lance sighs, shaking his head as Matt reaches forward to get his tile.

 

Matt turns the tile and reads it out, sighing after he reads the tile. “This one is no fun—‘Straights’. Should we just do what we did last time?” He sets the tile on top of the tower, being extra careful not to knock it down.

 

Lance reaches over the coffee table for his forgotten cup, taking a sip. “Well I sure as hell am. Just gives me another excuse to drink.”  Wait—Lance wasn’t straight (at least Keith didn’t think he was straight). He’s almost certain he’s seen Lance wear tons of bisexual pride items. Why is he drinking?

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, looking at his cup then around the table as Allura, Shiro, Matt, and Hunk drink as well. Shiro, Allura, and Matt are dating each other—there was no way in hell they’re straight—which just confused Keith further. “What—what?”

 

Pidge rolls their eyes, changing the music and turning the volume down to make conversation easier. “Since none of us are 100% straight, Lance got the bright idea that ‘straight’ could be interpreted as being attracted to the opposite gender. But we all know it’s just his excuse to get shitfaced faster.”

 

Matt shrugs, putting his cup back down and leaning against his boyfriend. “Plus, if we had a tile for everyone’s individual identity we’d have used like ten tiles.”

 

Pidge nods, analyzing the rickety tower in front of them before carefully extracting their tile. “True.” Pidge reads the tile and smirks, showing it to Keith before whooping and bolting towards the kitchen. “I’m getting the butcher knives!”

 

Hunk’s eyes widen, bolting up and running after Pidge into the kitchen. “Pidge no!”

 

Keith picks up the tile, seeing the pair of scissors drawn on the tile with ‘Edward Scissor Hands’ printed in block letters. “Edward Scissor Hands?” He looks around the circle, noting that Lance had walked around the coffee table to stand next to him.

 

Allura sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. “The person who draws that tile has to hold knives—butter knives—“ She yells towards the kitchen, shaking her head again and sipping her drink, “between their fingers for the remainder of the game. If they put the knives down or drop them they have to finish their drink.”

 

Hunk carries a pouty Pidge back into the living room, setting them down in their seat as Pidge tries to intimidatingly clink their butter knives at him. “Fear me!”

 

Keith chuckles, difficult to find his small tablemate very intimidating when their sleeves kept falling forward and covering their hands, the tips of the butter knives sticking out. _Okay, that might be a little intimidating._ “Only a little.” Pidge manages to flip Keith off, then carefully uses the knifes to set the block on the top, wincing a bit as the tower sways slightly. Keith shakes his head, parts of his bangs falling over his eyes before he brushes them out of the way. “My turn?” After everyone gives an affirmative nod or ‘yes’, Keith analyzes the rickety Jenga tower, deciding to play it safe and removing a center block. He turns it over, raising an eyebrow as he looks at the tile. “Truth or dare?”

 

Pidge smirks as Lance cheers and pumps a fist in the air. “Yes! I love this tile with new people.” Lance kneels down, waving a hand dismissively when Hunk taps his shoulder. “I know I know, ‘kneeling isn’t standing’, I’ll drink,” he sips his drink, smirking mischievously at Keith, “you pick either truth or dare, then leave the room. The rest of us decide what question to ask or what dare to make you do. If you don’t answer and/or won’t do the dare then you have to drink.”

 

Keith purses his lips out a bit, taking a small sip of his rum and coke as he tries to decide what to pick. His head was already starting to get a little cloudy. He shouldn’t have drunk his first drink so fast. Keith sets his drink down, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to decide which option to pick. He was partially afraid of what dare everyone would make him do, so he was swaying towards picking truth. However… if he picked truth, they could ask some questions about his past that he didn’t feel like answering. He glanced up at Lance, briefly making eye contact before looking away and chewing on his bottom lip as he tried to weigh his options.

 

Wait, when did he get so indecisive? He used to be known as the wild card—impulsive—unpredictable. Where did that Keith go? Keith shakes his head, trying to clear his rapid thoughts.

 

 Fuck thinking, just act. “Dare.”

 

Matt and Pidge both ‘ooo’ed, Lance helping Keith stand up and pushing him out of the living room. “Okay Mullet—wait in the hallway and we’ll let you know when we’ve reached a verdict!” He quickly closes the door to the living room, effectively isolating Keith out in the hallway.

 

Keith slowly lets out a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest as he leans against the wall, wondering what kind of dare they were going to ask him to do. Shiro was in there—there’s no way it would be too bad. While Shiro was his older brother, sometimes he gives off this fatherly vibe and cared too much about other people’s safety and boundaries. Although…. drunk Shiro was more impulsive…. Keith chews on his bottom lip, tapping his foot as the minutes seemed to tick by.

 

What the hell was taking them so long? How long has he been out here?

 

Keith pulls out his phone to check the time, noting that it was a little past nine pm. _When did they put me out here again?_ _Fuck—_ Keith had no idea when he was pushed out to the hallway. How was he supposed to know how long he’s been out here?

 

His frown only deepens as a half hour seems to past (but was really only five minutes, his perception of time was skewed when he’s intoxocated), before Pidge opens the door and smiles at Keith. “We’re ready for ya.”

 

Keith groans, tilting his head back as he walks into the living room. “Finally. That took forever.” He looks around the living room and stops dead in his tracks, noticing that Lance was laying on the ground with his shirt off, a lime in his mouth, salt on his stomach, and Matt kneeling next to him holding a bottle of tequila. His eyes widen as a blush spreads across his face, looking around at everyone quickly, trying to avoid looking at Lance. “What—Why—do I--?”

 

Lance reaches up and takes the lime out of his mouth, looking over at Keith and smirking playfully, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “What? Scared Kogane? It’s just a body shot.”

 

Keith glances around at everyone else, noticing Pidge and Hunk exchanging fist bumps, Shiro gives him a thumbs up, and Allura and Matt making suggestive hand movements when Lance wasn’t looking. He furrows his brows, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling. “I’m not scared—“

 

“Really? Then get your ass over here already. This lime is sour and the salt tickles.” Lance returns to his position, gently resting the lime wedge in his mouth as Keith huffs. He looks around the room once more, shooting daggers at everyone before kneeling down next to Lance. Matt pours tequila in Lance’s belly button, causing Lance to giggle.

 

Keith closes his eyes and takes a breath to calm himself, trying to will the blush off his face. _Don’t think about it—it’s just a body shot. It’s not like you’re gonna be licking his stomach—or taking a shot from his bellybutton—or biting a lime from his mouth holy shit—_ Lance clears his throat, causing Keith’s eyes to snap open and look into Lance’s blue eyes. _Shit were they always so blue?_ Keith shakes his head, trying to rid himself of his gay thoughts and proving unsuccessful.

 

_Don’t think, just act._

 

Trying to get this over with, Keith leans down and licks the salt off Lance’s stomach, ignoring how warm his skin was as he sips the shot out of his bellybutton. Lance couldn’t help but chuckle and squirm, stilling only when Keith leaned over him to bite the lime wedge out of his mouth. Keith could hear a faint gasp leaving Lance’s parted lips as his lightly brush against the Cuban’s. He sinks his teeth further into the wedge, pulling it out of Lance’s mouth before sitting up and scooting away quickly. There were a few whoops and hollers, but Keith was too occupied trying to will his face to return to a normal color to figure out exactly who was doing it. It took a few seconds before he could look over at Lance, noticing a flush on his face. He couldn’t help but smirk a bit as Lance takes an extra moment to get to his feet, some of the leftover salt falling off his toned stomach—

 

Keith quickly looks away, taking the lime slice out of his mouth and wincing, finally noticing the sour taste. How didn’t he notice that before? Lance clears his throat, brushing off imaginary dirt before smiling nervously. “M-My turn—“ He reaches towards the Jenga tower, taking out a tile and reading it quickly. “Gays—everyone drinks!” Everyone takes a sip, Lance and Keith taking bigger drinks than they both probably should.

 

Hunk went ahead and drew a tile, groaning at the mittens drawn on the tile. “Kitten mittens—where are the mittens again?”

 

Keith tried to spare a glance at Lance, blushing lightly when grey eyes met blue before quickly looking away. He takes another sip of his drink, trying to ignore the shirtless Cuban standing next to him.

 

Tonight is going to be a _really_ long night.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

One round of drunk Jenga turned into two, then three. Keith couldn’t remember how many drinks he’s already had, but he hasn’t blacked out yet—so that’s a good sign. They somehow managed to get through a good portion of the tiles; Pidge having to talk to inanimate objects, Hunk getting a strip tile (apparently there were three? Who needs that many?), Shiro had to hold a mustache to his face one round, and Lance had to call Eva during one of his turns. (She was _not_ happy. Apparently, Lance….interrupted something.) It was almost eleven before they switched to another game called Cheating Moth where you had to try to cheat your cards away. Keith hadn’t played the game before, but he was surprisingly good at palming cards so he won a few hands. It was past midnight when Hunk recommended snacks and a movie, Shiro helping Hunk bring in snacks and water as Pidge and Lance fought about what movie to watch. (They ended up settling on Lillo and Stitch, agreeing that the movie was worthy enough to watch.)

 

They were almost halfway through the movie, Keith, forgetting about the almost kiss he shared with the attractive man sitting next to him, was enjoying hanging out with his friends. He had to remind himself to pout or frown a few times, not wanting Shiro to think that he was right. Just when he started relaxing and fully enjoying spending time with his friends, he felt something touch his shoulder, glancing over and seeing a head of brown hair. He blushes a bit, deciding not to say anything (yet) for fear of scaring Lance away. His leg starts twitching, suddenly aware of how close he and Lance really were. When did their thighs get pressed together? When did Lance start leaning against him? Did he fall asleep?

 

In a blink of an eye the movie was over, Allura putting on another movie despite Hunk and Pidge sleeping in a pile on the floor. Shiro was buried under a sleeping Matt and a semi-conscious Allura. Shiro and Keith seemed to be the only ones conscious enough to watch a movie. Keith was starting to sober up, switching to water after the last round of Cheating Moth. He didn’t want to end up hungover tomorrow—Shiro had finally beat that message into his head his senior year of college, and he’s had one too many hangovers for his liking.

 

Shiro manages to nudge Keith with his prosthetic arm, having taken it off once they started the movie. Keith raises an eyebrow, keeping his voice low as he talks to his brother. “What? Lance is asleep.”

 

Shiro smirks and wiggles his eyebrows, causing Keith to frown and push the prosthetic arm away. “Which is why I’m whispering. Y’know he probably likes you, right?”

 

Keith couldn’t help but blush, glancing away and mumbling softly. “I doubt it. He despised me when we first met. What do you think that was about?”

 

Shiro shrugs, jostling Matt a bit and causing him to grunt and smack Shiro’s stomach lightly before curling up closer to his side. “I don’t know, but he’s sure clinging to you now. Lance wouldn’t cling to you if he wasn’t at least a _little_ interested.”

 

Keith sighs heavily, growing tired of his brother trying to meddle with his love life. He tenses up as Lance shifts closer, nuzzling into the base of Keith’s neck and pressing into his side. _Great, at this rate I’m gonna be constantly blushing._ When Lance settled down Keith exhales slowly, his arm awkwardly squished between Lance and his side. He looked over at Shiro, flipping him off when he saw the suggestive look he gave him. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

 

Lance yawns, sitting up a bit and rubbing his eyes. Keith tenses up again, eyes wide as he looks into Lance’s cloudy eyes. He half expected Lance to push him away and deny that anything happened. So when Lance stands up, takes his hand and smiles, Keith didn’t know what else to do besides follow his lead as he starts leading him out of the living room. “C’mon mullet, time for bed.” Keith shoots a glance towards his brother, mouthing out ‘what should I do’. Shiro wiggles his eyebrows, mouthing back ‘protection’ before smiling and waving. Keith blushes deeper and scowls, flipping Shiro off one more time for good measure as Lance stumbles up the stairs.

 

Keith had to hold onto the railing with his free hand to keep himself from tripping, eyebrow raising quizzically. There was no way Lance would be dragging him upstairs for that—there’s literally been no signs to suggest it—besides, it’s barely been two months since they met, and Lance still sometimes seemed cold and off-putting towards him. Keith is only more confused as Lance opens the door to the room he was staying in, finally deciding to break the silence. “Uh, Lance?”

 

“Hm?” Lance turns towards Keith, pulling him into the bedroom and slamming the door closed behind them. He wraps his arms around Keith’s neck, pulling him in close and brushing their noses together. “Finally.” Lance slurs, nuzzling his nose against Keith’s slowly.

 

Keith’s heart skips a beat, trying to lean back and ends up pressed against the door, opening his mouth to speak before Lance’s lips crash against his own. His eyes widen and he freezes, unsure of what to do. He totally didn’t squeak in surprise—nope—he let out a totally manly sound. It wasn’t until Lance bit his bottom lip that his sluggish brain finally caught up and he gently pushes Lance back, breaking the kiss and taking in a deep breath, his face bright red. “Wha—What are you doing?”

 

Lance, apparently not deterred from Keith pushing him away, started kissing down his neck, occasionally nipping as he gently tugs at the hair near the nape of his neck. Keith bites his bottom lip to suppress a groan, throwing his head back against the door with a loud thud. “C’mon,” Lance starts tugging at Keith’s shirt collar, pulling it down to lick across his collar bone, causing Keith to shiver. “y’kno this was gunna’ ha’apen.” Lance slurred, too drunk to form a coherent sentence.

 

Like a light switch Keith instantly sobers up, fighting against Lance’s (surprisingly) strong grip and holding him an arm’s length away. Lance whines, reaching his arms out and pouting as his fingertips were only able to graze Keith. “Lance, you’re drunk.” Keith states, not wanting to do anything with Lance unless he was sober—Lance couldn’t consent properly if he was too drunk to speak.

 

Lance puffs out cheeks out, grabbing Keith’s wrists and stumbling backwards onto the bed, pulling Keith on top of him and wrapping his legs around his waist. “Di’nt stop ya last time.” Lance managed to lean up and lick Keith’s jaw, causing his blush to deepen as he tries to pull away from the clingy Cuban.

 

Wait, last time?

 

Keith furrows his brows, managing to grab onto Lance’s wrists and pin them next to his head on the mattress. “What do you mean last time?” Lance tried to squirm out of Keith’s grip, making grabby hands as he tried to continue running his hands along Keith’s body. (With how little he lifted weights, and how drunk he was, there was no way that Lance could break free, Keith was sure of that.)

 

Lance groans and lets his head flop back on the soft bed, giving up for the time being. Keith huffs, getting irritated and more confused by Lance’s antics the longer this continued. “Lance, look at me.” Lance lifts his head up and smiles shyly up at Keith before he pauses, a smirk spreading across his face to reveal pearly white teeth. Shit—Keith didn’t like the look on his face. Lance stopped trying to move his upper body, causing Keith to let down his guard slightly right as Lance starts _grinding_ up against him. Keith couldn’t help but moan, trying to pull away. He had to let go of one of Lance’s hands to push his hips down onto the bed. Lance’s now free hand crawls up to Keith’s shirt and partially pulls it over Keith’s head before getting stuck. “Lance!” Keith stands up on his knees, pulling his shirt back down as Lance uses his legs to pull Keith down again.

 

Keith squeaks, falling forward and just barely bracing his hand on the bed to prevent himself from falling on top of Lance. Lance wraps his arms around Keith’s torso, pulling him down and nipping at his neck roughly, Keith whimpering at the sting. “Missed this.” Lance breathed out against his neck, legs wrapping tighter around Keith’s hips. Keith shudders, having to remind himself why he wasn’t running his hands over dark skin and mapping out Lance’s body with his tongue. Why wasn’t he? He obviously finds Lance attractive—his legs went on forever and his hips were just _sinful_ —and Lance did start all of this. Lance had to find him at least a _little_ attractive to be grinding against him like this.

 

_Don’t think, just do._

 

Throwing thought and rationality out the window, Keith closes the distance between them and kissing Lance passionately. He could feel a moan slip from the man below him as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss. He uses the hand that wasn’t supporting himself to tilt Lance’s head at a better angle, parting his lips and moaning softly as the taste of tequila hits his tongue. Lance pulls Keith down closer, Keith shifting his hips to lean down more comfortably. Lance gasps into the kiss as Keith grinds against him. God, Keith wanted to hear that again. He was just about to roll his hips again before he stops dead in his tracks.

 

_Lance is drunk._

Keith quickly sits up, frozen like a deer caught in the headlights. 

_He’d never do this sober._

Lance looks up at Keith and pouts, trying to pull Keith back down and whining. “Keith, c’mon.”

 

_What did he mean by ‘last time’?_

 

Keith tugs Lance’s arms away from him and pins them to the mattress, managing to escape the iron grip of Lance’s legs and sit on Lance’s stomach so his hips wouldn’t distract him, again. He takes a few deep, calming breaths, closing his eyes to gather his thoughts. The nagging feeling only growing as he looks down at hazy blue eyes below. “Lance…. What exactly happened between us during college?” He whispered, his grip on Lance’s wrists slacking as Lance settles back into the mattress, going limp and looking away from Keith. Keith sighs, taking the risk of Lance grabbing him again to grab his chin, gently tilting his head to gaze into his eyes again. “I’m not gonna do anything until you tell me.”

 

Lance whines, squirming under Keith on the bed. Keith was sure that Lance was just going to brush him off again when Lance sighs and up at his captive, whispering softly. “We hooked up at a party….and you snuck out before I woke up.”

 

Keith freezes, eyes widening and brain short circuiting as he looks down at the man who’s been the center of his fantasies for the past two months.

 

“Wha…”

 

Keith’s world just came to a stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay usually not one for cliffhangers but if I didn't have a cliffhanger this chapter would be hella long so I had to break it up. (you can yell at me in the comments)
> 
> P.S. I'm going to a convention in late June so while I'll be working on cosplays for that, I'm gonna try to update before then so I don't leave you guys hanging *too* much
> 
> comments/kudos always appreciated! 
> 
> P.S.S. feel free to yell at me on tumblr @mammahen


	7. Y'Know I'm Under The Influence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith have...a little talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually able to get this chapter out before Friday! 
> 
> This is my first time writing Lance (which probably sucks tbh but its the first time and *technically* he's drunk most of the chapter so--) 
> 
> Happy reading!

“Wha…”

 

Lance looks up at Keith, his mind swimming as he tried to understand why Keith looks—what was that look on his face—shocked? Shocked was probably what it was. What was Keith shocked about? Keith’s grey eyes were blown wide and Lance could have sworn they looked purple in this light. God, he wanted to kiss him again. Lance gets his wrists free and reached up towards his bedmate, wanting to continue where they left off. “C’mon, I told ya—c’mere—“ Keith came with no resistance this time as Lance pulls him down and trails kisses along his jaw.

 

Keith snapped out of his stupor, blinking a few times before he abruptly pulls away, causing Lance to whine at the loss. “Wait—Lance—you just can’t—“ Lance, deciding not to listen, nibbled the juncture of Keith’s shoulder and neck, causing him to groan. “Y-You can’t just say that—“ Lance’s head gets pushed away and Keith huffs, pinning his wrists to the mattress again and leaning back. “And not expect to talk about it!”

 

Lance pouts, trying to remember what they were talking about. What were they talking about again? He shouldn’t have drank so much, it made it harder for him to gather his thoughts—it didn’t help he didn’t take his medication today either—so trying to straighten out his thoughts to hold a legitimate conversation was rather difficult at the moment. “…..talka’ ‘bout what?”

 

Obviously, Keith didn’t want that answer cus he groans and lets his head hang forward, shoulders tensing up. “When did we sleep together in college?!”

 

Oh, that, right.

 

Lance tilts his head, lips pursed a bit as he tried to recall when that happened—his memory recall was lacking too. “Uh…. Junior year? Ya—junior year.”

 

Keith’s brows furrowed, his bottom lip jutted out slightly like it does when he’s deep in thought (Lance found that absolutely adorable). He wanted to kiss it, so Lance decides to do just that. He leans up and kisses Keith, making sure to nip his bottom lip and smirking as he hears the man above him gasp. He barely felt a return press of lips before Keith pushes him away again. Lance whines and huffs, starting to get frustrated. Why did Keith keep pushing him away?

 

Keith presses a hand firmly to Lance’s chest to keep him pinned, looking deep into his eyes. “Lance—that didn’t answer my question. _When_ did we hook up?” Something seemed to flash quickly behind Keith’s eyes that Lance couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was—sorrow? Regret?

 

Wait—did Keith regret sleeping with him?

 

Is that why he’s pushing him away?

 

Sorrow and hurt start to flood through Lance, his bottom lip quivering a bit and tears gathering in the corner of his eyes. Was Keith repulsed by him? Is that why he won’t touch him? That’s probably it—why else would he forget him completely afterwards? He hiccups, tears starting to fall down his face as he whimpers, eyes closing tight. He feels something warm touch his face and he nuzzles into the touch, biting his bottom lip to suppress the noises he was making.

 

“Hey, Lance—Lance take a deep breath.” Keith whispered softly, his thumbs lightly brushing against his cheekbones. Lance takes in a shaky breath, opening his eyes slightly to stare up at Keith’s concern face. Why did he look like that? “You okay?”

 

Lance pouts his bottom lip and sniffs, trying to shoot a weak glare up at Keith before he lets out a sob and closes his eyes again. Damn it. What’s wrong with him? He knew he couldn’t land a guy like Keith sober, but he figured he could drunk—he already did once, damnit. What’s wrong? What’s changed? _Does Keith hate me that much to forget about me?_ Lance’s breathing turns sporadic as he starts to wail, overwhelmed by the negative thoughts starting to rush through his mind.

 

Worthless.

 

Unwanted.

 

_Disposable._

 

When he felt arms circle around him, Lance clings on for dear life, trying to find any sort of comfort. He was vaguely aware that it was Keith, which caused him to cry harder. Why was Keith trying to comfort him? He probably just wanted Lance to calm down enough so he could leave without feeling guilty. Lance stiffens up a bit as he felt Keith start to run his fingers through his hair, subconsciously relaxing into the feeling. “Deep breaths, c’mon. I know you can do it.”

 

He wasn’t sure what helped him eventually calm down; Keith talking him through his breathing, the fingers running through his hair, or the fact that it was _Keith_ who was trying to comfort him. Once his breathing returns back to normal, he looks up hesitantly towards Keith, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Keith smiles softer than Lance has ever seen him smile before, then presses a chaste kiss to Lance’s forehead, rubbing his back with his free hand. “Better?”

 

Lance glances down at Keith’s chest, tightening his hold on the fabric beneath his fingers. He didn’t know why, but he actually did feel a little better. He manages a small smile, more of a slight upturn of the lips than anything, and nods, nuzzling in towards Keith again.

 

Keith sighs, continuing to run his hand through Lance’s short brown hair as they lay together on the bed. The minutes seemed to tick by before Keith spoke, voice barely above a whisper. “Listen, Lance…” Lance hums at the mention of his name, peeking up at Keith, fully intending on listening until he felt a familiar clench in his gut. Oh no.

 

He has to go.

 

NOW.

 

“I’m sorr—“

 

“Wait—“ Lance finds the strength he was missing earlier and pushes Keith off of him, jumping off the bed and stumbling out the door towards the bathroom. _Almost there almost—three more feet--_ He flung open the bathroom door, just barely making it to the toilet before throwing up the contents of his stomach. Ugh, this was Lance’s least-favorite part of drinking; kneeling in front of the toilet bowl while his body purged himself of all the crap he drank during the party, the scratchy throat he’d have afterwards and the strong taste of bile and stale alcohol in his mouth. Lance has only ever drunk once where he didn’t throw up the next day—and only a mild headache of a hangover: the day after the incident™ (which was one thing he wish he could have forgotten). He had to deal with a different kind of pain that day. A bad hangover he could handle, his heart being ripped out was another. Lance groans, resting his cheek on the cool porcelain and closing his eyes, his throat feeling scratchy and his whole mouth feeling gross.

 

Lance hears bare feet hitting the tile on the bathroom floor, then a warm hard rubbing his back in slow, soothing circles. “Oh, Lance…need me to get anything? Water? Pepto? Advil?” Keith whispers, his other hand coming up and gently brushing his bangs off his sweaty forehead. Lance groans, his stomach clenching again at the idea of taking any form of medicine at the moment. He shakes his head as much as he dared, his thoughts still swimming, but not as much as before. Keith exhales slowly, continuing to rub Lance’s back. “Okay. Want to sit here a little longer?” Lance nods, letting out a shaky breath and nuzzling into Keith’s hand.

 

Why was Keith being so nice? The Keith he knew in college barely gave him the time of day—he was lucky if he could get Keith to even glance his way. Now he’s comforting him in a bathroom at 2 AM at their boss’s house after Lance dry humped him and tried to get in his pants when he kept pushing him away. _Oh god, that makes me sound horrible._ Lance groans, turning to look towards Keith and opening his eyes to look at the asshole-but-currently-not-an-asshole Keith. Did he really not remember? Or was this just some sort of joke to him? “D’ya really not remember?” He manages to croak out, his throat scratchier than he thought it would be. _Damn._

 

Keith glances down at the floor, sighing before running a hand through his hair. “No... I was so shitfaced at that party I was blackout drunk most of the night.” Keith starts running his hands through Lance’s hair, his voice growing softer. “But I wish I did.”

 

Lance sniffs, nuzzling into Keith’s hand, bottom lip sticking out slightly. “…really? Why?” He coughs, then grimaces at the vile taste in his mouth. “Water?”

 

Keith nods, gently patting Lance’s back. “Yeah—I’ll get you a bottle. You gonna be okay for a few minutes?”

 

Lance narrows his eyes a bit, jutting his bottom lip out a bit more. “I’m not movin’ for fifty years unless I wanna hurl again, so yeah.”

 

Keith winces a bit, then gets up off the floor and rubs Lance’s head one more time. “Right…. I’ll be back soon.” With that, Keith walks out of the bathroom and Lance lets his eyes drift close. Were the bathroom lights always so bright? Ugh, he was really regretting drinking so much, so fast. He really wished Hunk found him sooner when he was taking shots in the kitchen away from everyone else. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so sick right now. He couldn’t help it—it was the longest he’s been around Keith outside of work, and the drinking games just brought up bad memories. He nearly lost it when Allura suggested beer pong; the game he and Keith played before they started getting really handsy—then the dancing followed by the make-outs and eventually back to Lance’s dorm. Ugh, he’s feeling sick again. Lance quickly turns his head back towards the bowl and pukes again, closing his eyes so tight they watered. He coughs, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and groaning.

 

God, his throat hurt—and not even for a fun reason.

 

Keith comes back into the bathroom with a bottle of water, some Advil, and a few saltine crackers. When Lance glanced up at Keith, he could have sworn his usually stoic face had an emotion there—confusion? Worry? What was it? Keith set the saltines and medicine on the counter, opening the water bottle and sitting down on the side of the tub. “Hey, do you think you can sit up for me?”

 

_What? Sit up?_

 

Lance looks around, noticing that he was eye-level with Keith’s socked feet. When did he get down here? He looks up at Keith and pouts slightly, raising a hand weakly towards Keith, needing help to get up. It seemed that Keith knew what Lance meant, setting the water bottle down before taking Lance’s hand and helping him sit up slowly. Lance pauses once he’s sitting up again, feeling like his brain was delayed from the rest of his body. _Woah, weird._ Lance keeps a tight hold on Keith, positive that was the only thing keeping him upright at the moment. “Okay—good.” Keith wraps an arm securely around Lance’s shoulder, sliding down onto the floor next to him and holding the water bottle to Lance’s lips. “Take a sip.”

 

Lance grumbles and shakes his head, curling up into Keith’s side. _God damn he’s warm._ Keith sighs, rubbing Lance’s arm gently. “C’mon, you’ll feel better once you drink some.” Lance puffs his cheeks out and shakes his head, not sure he can stomach drinking anything else tonight—drinking too much got him into this mess. Keith huffs, gently nudging Lance’s legs that somehow managed to find their way into Keith’s lap. “We can go to bed once you finish this bottle of water.”

 

God, sleep sounded great at the moment.

 

Lance reaches up and takes the water bottle from Keith, who kept his hand close by in case Lance drops the bottle. He takes a hand off the water bottle and bats Keith’s hand away, huffing. “’Mgood.” He shoots a weak glare over at Keith when he doesn’t immediately move his hand back. Lance waited until Keith moved his hand away, then slowly takes a sip of the cool water. _Holy shit._ The moment the water hit his tongue, he realized just how thirsty he was. He tilts his head back and starts gulping down water, whining when Keith snatched the bottle away. “Hey—“

 

“If you drink too fast you’ll puke again.” Keith chastises, setting the water bottle down and reaching for the saltines. “Here, munch on a few of these.” He opens the package, holding out a cracker towards Lance.

 

Lance scrunches up his nose, turning his face into Keith’s shoulder. “I hate saltines.” He grumbles, curling up tighter against Keith’s side.

 

Keith huffs, gently nudging Lance’s side. “I know—they taste like cardboard. But they’re good for upset stomachs. If you eat five and finish your water we can go to bed.”

 

Okay, Lance might feel like shit, but he wouldn’t be doing himself justice if he let that comment slide without saying _something_. He tilts his head up, peeking up at Keith and wiggling his eyebrows, purring softly. “What we gonna do once we get there?”

 

“Sleep.” Keith lifts Lance’s chin up, holding a cracker to his mouth. “Now eat. I wanna go to bed before 5 AM.”

 

Lance pouts, but leans forward and takes a bite out of the cracker, causing it to crumble completely. “Party pooper.”

 

Keith shoots Lance an unimpressed look, then uses his thumb to wipe the crumbs away from the corner of his mouth. “Ask me out when you’re sober and maybe we can work towards that.”

 

Lance blushes lightly, chewing the cracker in his mouth before swallowing, his mouth dry again (thank you, saltines). Damn. “Keith Kogane, you asking me out on a date?”

 

Keith blushes brightly, looking away and holding out Lance’s water. “N-No—“

 

“Awww, does Keith have a crush on me? ~” Lance coos, crawling into Keith’s lap and wrapping his arms around his neck. He chuckles, watching Keith tense up beneath him and try to lean further back. _He’s cute when he’s flustered._ “Little Keithy Weithy~ having a crush on lil’ ole’ me~”

 

Keith blushes deeper, pushing the water bottle in between them. “Just drink your water—“

 

Lance smiles and giggles, then takes the bottle and manages to drink about a fourth of it before Keith takes it away from him and feeds him another cracker. Lance couldn’t believe it—Keith—stuck up, holier-than-thou Keith from his anatomy class actually likes him! God, that put butterflies in his stomach. He felt like he could run a marathon. _If college-me could see me now._ He got him. Lance McClain snagged Keith Kogane. Keith Kogane—the guy he’s had unrequited feelings for since _freshman year_ , actually. Likes. HIM. Lance was absolutely giddy, unable to keep the smile off his face as Keith kept feeding him those nasty crackers. How many has he eaten already? He wasn’t sure—probably more than five at this point. He furrows his brows and pouts, keeping his mouth closed as Keith tries to feed him another cracker. “Nu-uh.” He mumbled out through his closed mouth, leaning away from Keith.

 

Keith smiles crookedly, then eats the cracker himself. “Fine—I got you to eat ten anyway.”

 

Lance gasps, putting a hand to his chest. “Betrayal!” He goes to climb out of Keith’s lap, then squeaks when Keith grabs onto his hips and holds him in place. “I thought you liked meeee.” He grumbles, squirming in Keith’s lap.

 

God, his head was starting to hurt.

 

He could have sworn he heard Keith take a sharp intake of breath, but with his head starting to throb he wasn’t sure.  Lance looks at Keith, noting the bitten lip and furrowed brows on his face. “I…I think I do? I don’t know—“

 

Oh no—that didn’t sound good at all.

 

Lance puts a finger to Keith’s lips, effectively cutting him off. “Didn’t you say something about fooling around in bed?” He forces himself to smile, fighting down the uneasy feeling growing in his gut as he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

 

Keith blushes and nips Lance’s finger, nudging the water bottle towards Lance again as he shoots him a weak glare. “No fooling around—and only once you finish your water.”

 

Lance rolls his eyes and huffs, then continues sipping on his water. “Okay _mom._ ” Keith rolls his eyes at his antics, then wraps an arm securely around Lance’s waist before using the edge of the tub to help push himself up. Lance squeaks, his legs wrapping around Keith’s waist and gripping his shirt with his free hand on reflex. “Keith!”

 

Keith rolls his eyes yet again, adjusting his hold on Lance once he was standing up straight; an arm around Lance’s waist and a hand behind Lance’s right knee. “Relax. I’m not going to drop you. My ass was just hurting from sitting on the hard floor for an hour and a half.” He grabs the Advil bottle, quickly sliding it in his pocket before carrying Lance out of the bathroom and back to the bedroom.

 

Lance blushes, tucking his face into the crook of Keith’s neck and leaning against his warm torso. He was starting to think that Keith had a thing for picking him up. _Seriously, this is the third time in less than a week._ He wasn’t gonna complain though, he liked a man that can pick him up effortlessly (seriously, imagine how handy that is _in bed_ ).

 

Keith sets Lance down on the edge of the bed, tapping the water bottle before taking out the Advil bottle and taking out two. “Go ahead and take these—where is your bag? I’m gonna get your pjs out for you.”

 

Lance takes the Advil quickly, chasing it down with water before scrunching up his face. “In the corner.” Keith turns quickly, looking over towards the corner and spotting Lance’s suitcase right next to his own, a blush spreading across his face. Lance laughs, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “’Lurra told me we were sharing.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, his lips tilting up in a slight smirk.

 

Keith tenses up for a second, then heads over to Lance’s bag, opening it up and looking inside for sleepwear. “Allura forgot to tell me that.” He mumbled, walking back over and tossing Lance’s pjs beside him.

 

Oh—Allura didn’t tell Keith—she totally wasn’t interfering in their love life at all. Nosirre. Lance chuckles lightly, finishing the contents of his water bottle before tossing it away. “Sounds like her.” He starts to tug off his shirt, stopping when he hears Keith sputtering nonsense in front of him. He tilts his head to peek through the head hole, raising an eyebrow. “What? Like what you see?” He chuckles when Keith blushes and turns away, arms crossed defensively. Good to know that Lance can keep flustering Keith even when intoxicated. He slips off his shirt and tossing it nowhere in particular, smirking playfully. “Y’know you can touch, gorgeous~” He cooed, sliding on the light blue t-shirt he brought to wear to bed (there was a picture of a cartoon cat with a sleep mask on it, so cute).

 

Keith sputters, so tense his shoulders were basically to his ears. “N-Not right now—“ He heads over to his own bag, grabbing his pjs and toothbrush before heading towards the door. “I’m gonna get ready in the bathroom—“ And in a blink of an eye, Keith was out the door.

 

Lance couldn’t help but pout, partially because he was sad he couldn’t flirt with Keith while he finished getting dressed, and partially because now he was alone. He sighs and falls back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as his thoughts start to come back. Was this just a dream? It had to be for Keith to be so nice to him. But ever since Keith got hired, he hasn’t been mean or rude to him. Maybe Allura was right and Keith really _has_ changed since college. That’s not too out of the ordinary, people have been known to change when they get older. Maybe…maybe he might be able to forgive Keith. Lance sighs heavily, rolling over onto his side and curling in on himself. He wouldn’t know how to feel about Keith if he forgave him—he’s spent years hating him—that’s not something that he can forget quickly. But these past two months working together have been…strange. With the challenges, shopping trips, and Zumba classes, Keith ended up worming his way into Lance’s good graces. He knew Lance was angry at him, but he managed to win Lance over _anyway_  by being himself—he didn’t even know why he was pissed until tonight! Keith was a force to be reckoned with. But….Lance didn’t know if he’d ever be able to fully forgive Keith. His eyes drift shut as he curls up in a ball, trying to calm his thoughts. _Not now, deal with it later._

 

It wasn’t until Keith shook his shoulder that he realized he started to doze off. Lance closes his eyes tighter and groans, reaching out blindly and slapping at Keith’s hand weakly. “Nooo.”

 

Keith sits on the edge of the bed, gently tugging at Lance’s wrist. “You didn’t finish changing.”

 

Lance slowly opens his eyes and yawns, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “I didn’t…?” He props himself up on his elbow and looks down at his legs, seeing the jeans he put on for the party. “Oh. I forgot.”

 

Keith shoots Lance an unimpressed look, obviously getting tired of dealing with Lance. “C’mon, we gotta head to bed.”

 

Despite being tired, Lance manages to smile playfully. “Mind taking my pants off for me?”

 

Keith flushes, letting go of Lance’s wrist and stiffening up. “Wha—What?”

 

Lance pouts, rolling over onto his back and lifting his hips up a bit. “C’mon, my head is spinning too much to stand.” Keith mumbles something under his breath, reaching over and getting Lance’s pants off as quickly as he can. He reaches over for the shorts on the bed before Lance pushes his foot to Keith’s chest. “Nu-uh—those are for my outfit tomorrow.”

 

Keith narrows his eyes slightly, his brows creased slightly. “Well, you didn’t tell me what your pjs look like.”

 

Lance wraps his legs around Keith, using them to pull the shorter male down on top of him and wrapping his arms around his neck. “I sleep in boxers.” He nuzzles into Keith’s chest, taking a deep breath before sighing happily. Keith smelled like cinnamon and hickory—and maybe a little smoky? He’d figure it out more tomorrow once he woke up.

 

Keith flushes and stutters, trying to put some distance between himself and Lance. “Lance—can  we at least actually get in the bed, and not on the edge of it?”

 

Lance yawns, gently nosing at Keith’s exposed collar bones before nipping it gently. “Jus’ pick me up an’ move me then.” Keith breathes in sharply, then wraps an arm around Lance’s waist, picking him up and moving them both towards the center of the bed. Lance giggles, curling up into Keith’s side once he lied down next to him. He was starting to love getting picked up by Keith.

 

Lance was just about to fall asleep when Keith spoke, his voice so soft Lance almost didn’t hear it. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember our … time together… I,” he clears his throat, taking a few seconds to himself before continuing, “Junior year was rough for me. I was going through some….personal things at the time, and used binge drinking as an unhealthy way to cope. I went to a party every weekend and blacked out a bunch of times. I’d wake up in strange places—I literally woke up in a ditch once. But that doesn’t excuse my actions.” Keith takes a deep breath, looking over at Lance and cupping his cheek in his warm hand. “I shouldn’t have pulled you into my mess—and I should have been a man and talked to you about it the next day.” Lance blushes a bit, nuzzling into Keith’s hands as he looks into his grey eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can ever make it up to you, but I’d like to try.”

 

Lance blushes, glancing down shyly as he bites his bottom lip.

 

Shit.

 

He didn’t think Keith would apologize.

 

Lance glances up at Keith again, searching his face to see if he could find anything dishonest on his features. He’s surprised when Keith looks genuine, something bright and fiery appearing to flash behind his eyes. “Do you really mean that?” He whispers, afraid that if he speaks too loudly that he’d ruin the moment.

 

Keith nods, his arm wrapped around Lance holding the Cuban a bit tighter. “I do.”

 

Lance blushes, then leans up and places a chaste kiss on Keith’s lips, then hides his face in the other’s chest. “Okay. G’night.”

 

Lance could practically hear Keith short circuit as he closes his eyes, smiling at the warm feeling in his chest as he drifts off to sleep, tangling his legs with Keith’s as he falls unconscious.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bright…

 

Too bright.

 

Lance groans, wincing as the sound of his own vocalization causes his head to ache. It felt like there was an icepick shoved through his head—and any sound caused it to move, making his head hurt _worse._ Very slowly, Lance turns his head to shield his eyes from the offensive light, starting to relax his tense shoulders as the darkness starts to sooth his headache. Lance was about to fall back asleep to ignore his hangover before he felt the bed shift below him. _That shouldn’t be happening…_ Lance reaches his hand out experimentally, feeling something warm under his palm. _Did I fall asleep on Hunk again?_ He squeezes his hand, surprised to find firm muscles instead of soft, squishy and huggable-ness that is his best friend in the entire world. _Not Hunk. Shiro? Naw, he was buried under Matt and Allura._ Lance pouts a bit, his hand sliding up as he tries to think of who he could possibly be on top of. _Not Pidge—they hate cuddles._

 

Wait.

 

There’s only one other option it could be.

 

Fuck—

 

Lance’s eyes fly open, squeaking and blushing when he finds himself staring up at Keith, still blissfully asleep. _Fuck fuck fuck—_ Keith’s brows furrowed a bit as he grunts, rolling over onto his side and pulling Lance against him, burying his face into his shoulder. Lance tenses up, feeling the tips of his ears heat up with how hard he was blushing.

 

How the _FUCK_ did he and Keith end up here? Again?! Lance quickly looks around, ignoring his pounding headache in order to try to still off his oncoming panic attack. He looks around the room, noting how his clothes were thrown around and the gross taste in his mouth, his eyes widening and his breath quickening. _Oh god—those aren’t good signs._ He quickly lifts up the sheet above them, letting out a relieved sigh when he saw they were both wearing clothes. He tries to discretely wiggle his hips, relieved further that his ass wasn’t killing him. He visibly deflates, letting his head fall back into Keith’s chest, trying to will his heart to calm down. _Curse this anxiety._

 

Now that Lance wasn’t on the verge of a breakdown, he needed to figure out just _how_ he got himself into this…situation. He tries to think of the last thing he remembered …...which was him arguing with Pidge about what movie to watch. Lance groans, pressing his face into Keith’s chest. _Thinkthinkthink! It had to be important!_ Seriously—he felt like he was missing out on something big. What the hell is it?

 

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there; pressed next to Keith as the other slept peacefully. It felt like an eternity and a second all at the same time. Keith squirms and yawns, opening his eyes as he wakes and squinting as he leans back a bit. Lance freezes, unsure of what to do. _Fuck—do I pretend to be asleep? Make a joke to ease the tension? Run out the door and never look back?_ Keith yawns loudly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before looking at Lance, a small, sleepy smile tugging at his lips. _Fuck—he’s cute when he’s just waking up—_ “G’mornin’, sleep well?”

 

Lance blushes, glancing back and forth between Keith and nothing else in particular before smiling shyly and nodding. “Y-Yeah—did you?” He croaks out, his throat dry and scratchy from the night before.

 

Keith nods, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Lance’s, a fond smile on his face. “Yeah, I did. How’s your head?”

 

“It’s mush, thanks for asking.” He mumbles, tucking his head under Keith’s chin. He grabs onto Keith’s shirt, biting his bottom lip as he wonders how to address the elephant in the room. “So…”

 

Keith hums, acknowledging that he heard Lance as he presses a kiss on the top of the brunet’s head. Lance blushes brightly, his breath hitching in his throat before he closes his eyes tightly. “What happened last night?” He blurts out, deciding to just rip off the band-aid and get the awkward conversation over with.

 

Keith freezes, then untangles their legs and pulls away, sitting up and propping himself up with one hand as he looks down at Lance. “You….don’t remember?” Keith whispers, eyes wide and mouth hanging open slightly.

 

Lance smiles sheepishly, reaching up and running a hand through his messy hair. “Uh….no? I remember arguing with Pidge about a movie but that’s it.”

 

If it was possible Keith’s face fell even more, Keith visibly deflating in front of him. “We—We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!”

 

Lance winces and covers his ears, managing to untangle his legs from the sheets and smacks Keith’s knee with his foot. “Volume!” He hisses, glaring up at Keith.

 

Keith actually looked apologetic for a moment, before he was pouting and sitting up with his legs crossed, facing Lance. “Sorry.” Keith leans down, resting his elbows on his knees. “Really? Nothing? Not even my heart-felt apology?” Lance slowly shakes his head, face pinched in confusion. Keith groans, sliding his hands down his face and grumbling. “Oh my god—you finally told me what you were so pissed at me for, and I apologized for being a total dick in college.”

 

Lance furrows his brows, rolling over onto his stomach and faceplanting into his pillow. “Oh yeah, that’s totally ‘heart-felt’.” He scoffs sarcastically, pulling the blankets above his head.

 

“Lance—c’mon—we had a moment!” Keith tugs at the blankets, groaning when they wouldn’t budge from Lance’s death grip on the edges. “Fine. I’ll just come under there then.”

 

“Keith no—“ Lance yelps when Keith popped his head under the blanket, slapping his face and trying to push him out of the blanket. “Out of my fortress of solitude!”

 

Keith winces, grabbing Lance’s wrist and shooting him a mild glare. “Really? ‘Fortress of solitude’? You can do better than that.”

 

Lance puffs his cheeks out, glancing away and mumbling softly. “Shut up—I’m hungover as fuck.”

 

“Oh, right. Someone apparently blacked out.” Keith mumbled the second half of the sentence, slipping away before Lance can retaliate by slapping his face again.

 

Lance glares at the spot Keith’s head was just at, feeling a shift in the mattress and the bedroom door opening and closing quickly. Lance takes in a shaky breath, closing his eyes as dread starts to settle in his chest. _Great, you just had to blackout and forget it, didn’t you? Now he’s gonna be pissed._ Lance probably missed his shot of ever being with Keith. He feels hot pinpricks behind his eyes and buries his face in the pillow, trying to push down his emotions. _No—don’t break down now. You can cry once you get home._

 

The bedroom door opens and Lance freezes, unsure who it was that just came in. _Probably Hunk—he usually checks on me the morning after I fuck up._ He feels the bed dip down, followed by someone gently shake his shoulder, causing Lance to curl in on himself and whine. “I’m not moving.”

 

“Not even for water and Advil?”

 

_No—It can’t be--_  Lance freezes, eyes flying open as he slips his head out from under the blanket. No, it really was Keith. _Why did he come back?_ “Why?”

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, holding out two pills and an open water bottle. “Because you’re hungover? I would have brought food too but Hunk wouldn’t let me—something about spoiling your breakfast?”

 

Lance blushes lightly, not even thinking that Keith left to get stuff for his hangover. That warm feeling was starting to spread in his chest again and he couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. “Hunk always makes us a giant breakfast the morning after a party. He also has an amazing hangover cure—I’ll have to have some this morning.”

 

Keith smiles crookedly, handing the bottle and medicine to Lance. “Sounds great.” He takes a hair tie off his wrist, putting his hair up in a low ponytail to hide the knots in his messy hair.

 

Lance blushes, sitting up and quickly taking the pain medicine, and drinks a third of the water before putting it down. “Y-Yeah…” He glances down at the bed, chewing on his bottom lip as he thinks of what to say. “So…you’re not mad?” Lance glances up at Keith, his brows pinched with worry.

 

Keith lets out a slow exhale, slouching a bit as he rubs the stubble on his chin. He takes a few seconds to respond, his lips pressed together as he thinks. “Not really mad, I guess. Just—I don’t know—maybe upset? We finally started to patch things up—I told you about my shit-streak in college that lead to me sleeping with you and running out the next morning. I apologized at least three times last night, but it still doesn’t seem like enough for the shit I put you through.” His eyes seem to soften, looking over at Lance. “And there’s no way to prove it, so you probably won’t believe me.”

 

Lance’s eyes widen a bit as he listens to Keith summarize what happened the night before, getting angrier at himself for forgetting something so important. Or… was he? Lance narrows his eyes slightly, leaning back and looking at Keith skeptically. “…You sure that’s all?”

 

Keith blushes a bit, clearing his throat and looking away, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, you also kept trying to get in my pants—you have surprisingly strong legs.”

 

“Oh god—“ He groans, covering his face with his hands as he blushes in embarrassment. “Did I really?” Keith blushes deeper and nods, glancing down at the bed. “But we’re in our pjs—“

 

“We didn’t.” Keith cut Lance off, then clears his throat before continuing at a softer turn. “I knew you couldn’t actually consent so…” He shrugs, picking at his fingernails anxiously.

 

Lance blushes lightly, slowly lowering his hands to stare at Keith. Did he really do that? He crawls over, sitting down next to Keith, a small smile on his face. “That’s surprisingly kind of you.”

 

Keith shrugs, looking down and refusing to meet Lance’s gaze. “’S nothing.” He mumbles, then clears his throat again.

 

Lance rolls his eyes and smiles crookedly, slowly getting out of bed and heading over to his bag. He grabs a change of clothes and his toiletries, looking at Keith over his shoulder. “No, it’s not. Not everyone would do that.”

 

Keith exhales heavily, leaning back on his hands as he looks down at the floor. “I know, I used to be everyone.”

 

Okay, Lance may be the king of beating himself up over past shit, but damn it if he’s gonna let Keith do the same thing to himself. He marched over to Keith, cupping his face in his free hand and forcing Keith to look up at him. “Stop that. You’ve obviously grown up and changed since then.” He looks deep into Keith’s eyes, widened in surprise. He holds his gaze for a few seconds longer than necessary, then slowly lets go of Keith’s face. “I accept your apology, but I can’t forgive you yet. It’ll take time and you still need to make it up to me.” He pats Keith’s cheek a few times, then kisses his opposite cheek before quickly turning on his heel and walking towards the door. “I’m gonna go shower.”

 

Lance couldn’t help but chuckle as he hears Keith stutter as he closes the bedroom door behind him, a little extra pep in his step as he heads into the bathroom to shower, brush his teeth, and exfoliate. He might be hungover and exhausted, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take care of himself a _little._

 

His mind starts to wander as he washes the grime from the previous day off of himself, reflecting on his morning. Keith seemed sincere, he just wished he could remember last night. Does this change anything between them? Will they start going out, or act like nothing happened and continue on like they have been? Can he move on if nothing happens between them? Lance closes his eyes, letting the warm water wash over him, wishing that the water could somehow bring his memory back. He tries to clear his mind, deciding that he didn’t need to answer these question before having any coffee.

 

Lance turns out the shower and steps out, drying himself off and looking at himself in the fogged-up mirror, frowning at his reflection.

 

He needed to figure out where he stood with Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V sorry I didn't manage to fit everyone's reactions into this chapter--the Keith and Lance Bonding Moment™ took up a lot more of the fic than I first realized so it got pushed to next chapter
> 
> Okay lettme know if any characterization is off/ooc, I'm always open to constructive criticism 
> 
> Next chapter: the squad finds out and Keith has to wrestle with his feelings. 
> 
> comments/kudos appreciated! And feel free to hmu on tumblr @mammahen


	8. Confrontation and Consolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith hasn't been good at talking...especially about his feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up almost a month late with starbucks* Okay, I'm sorry this chapter is so late--but this has been a busy month for me and my family (what with three birthdays, a convention, and my mom getting hip surgery today), finding time to sit down and write as well as working part-time has been a little bit of a struggle. 
> 
> Plus my best friend wants me to write a Pidge fic for her so I had to split my time between writing chapter 8 for DDL and outlining AF and working on chapter 1 (but I finished ch 8 first cus y'all been so patient you got priority <3 )
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy!

Keith fucked up.

 

Seriously, he wasn’t sure how he could fuck up more than he already has.

 

The moment that the bedroom door closed Keith groans and plops down on the bed, ignoring his headache in favor of moping. _He seriously blacked out last night?_ He knew there was no way he could apologize like he did last night—the moment was gone and it would seem rehearsed. Keith rolls onto his side and frowns at the pillow Lance slept on the night before, wondering why he even cared so much. _Y’know why he was angry, but he doesn’t seem to hate you anymore._ Maybe it was because he knew they could never be more than friends if Lance never forgave him—

 

Wait—

 

_‘more than friends?’_

_Who said I want to be more than friends with_ Lance _? Loud, obnoxious, clingy, warm, soft, caring, gentle—_ Keith quickly shook his head, derailing his train of thought as he pushes himself up off the bed, needing to talk to someone about what happened.

 

Shiro.

 

_Shiro will know how to help._

 

Slowly pushing himself up so as not to aggravate his headache, Keith manages to slide off the bed and make his way downstairs to find his brother. He knew Shiro was a natural early riser—even after a late night full of drinking, games, and junk food. After a quick sweep of the living room (only finding Pidge sprawled out on the floor), Keith pads his way into the kitchen where he found Hunk earlier. When he enters the kitchen, the smell of coffee and bacon filling his nose, Keith couldn’t help but sigh and relax. Memories of lazy Sunday mornings with Shiro and their parents starting to surface.

 

“Hey Keith—breakfast isn’t ready yet but coffee is.” Hunk beams over his shoulder at Keith, shooting him a smile before turning back to cooking. Keith hums in acknowledgement, then pours himself a cup to sip on as he continues looking for Shiro. “So, how’s Lance? Did you manage to get him to take some Advil?”

 

Keith tenses up a bit, his cheeks tinting pink at the mention of the Cuban currently showering upstairs. “Uh—yeah—he’s showering now.” Hunk looks over at Keith and raises an eyebrow, looking skeptical at Keith’s answer. Luckily, Shiro walks in before Hunk can say anything, an annoyingly bright smile on his face the morning after a party. _Is Shiro a demon or something?_

 

“Morning guys. Hunk, breakfast smells absolutely wonderful.” Shiro pats Hunk’s shoulder, about to reach over for a piece of bacon off the plate before a spatula smacks it away. “Ow! Hunk!”

 

“Nu-uh—we’re having family breakfast today so no snacks beforehand.” Hunk chastises, going back to mixing the pancake batter.

 

Shiro pouts but doesn’t try to steal the bacon again, instead looking over at Keith and smirking. “You look like shit.”

 

“No shit, really?” Keith deadpans, sipping his coffee and flipping Shiro off when he laughs.

 

Shiro gets a glass out of the cabinet and fills it with water, putting it down in front of Keith. “Take some Advil for your headache before you get a permanent crease between your brows.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, tempted to sass his brother and refuse, but he couldn’t ignore the pounding in his head forever—and it certainly would make it easier for him to think without it… He gets himself some Advil before downing it with water, then shoots a glare at his older brother. “There. Happy?”

 

“Very.” Shiro ruffles Keith’s hair, then sits on a bar stool by the kitchen island after getting himself a cup of coffee. He takes a long sip and sighs, closing his eyes. “Nothing better than a cup of coffee.”

 

Keith hums in agreement, his mind wandering back to his conversation with Lance last night and this morning. He chances a glance over at Hunk, wondering if he should try to talk to Shiro alone or not. _Well, Hunk said he knew…. plus, he could probably give me tips on how to apologize to Lance._ He clears his throat, taking a seat beside Shiro and looking down at the marble counter top. “Hey, can I talk to you guys about something?” 

 

Shiro and Hunk both look over at Keith, Shiro nodding as Hunk raises an eyebrow slightly. “It must be important if you’re talkative this early in the morning, what is it?”

 

Keith takes a deep breath, closing his eyes to gather up the courage to say what was on his mind. He never was good at sharing, especially his feelings. “Well…it’s about Lance. Last night—he—um—“ Shiro puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, grounding him and giving Keith the push to continue his sentence. “He told me why he was so mad at me when we met…. again.”

 

Shiro arches an eyebrow, tilting his head in confusion. “Again?”

 

Keith nods, glancing up at Shiro before looking back down at the counter, speaking softer. “Yeah. We had some of the same classes together in college apparently. And…um…” He bites his bottom lip, not wanting to admit out loud what he did, but knowing he couldn’t get accurate advice and help without it. “Shiro, remember what happened junior year?”

 

Shiro sighs heavily, seeming to age five years in front of them. “Yeah, you got alcohol poisoning five times and tried drinking and sex to fix yourself. What about it?”

 

Keith winces at Shiro’s blunt description, but couldn’t deny anything that he said. _Shit, I was really messed up back then…_ “Well….I hooked up with Lance during one my blackouts, left the next morning without a word….and completely forgot about him afterwards.” The sharp intake of breath of the two guys in the room is all the confirmation Keith needs to know that he screwed up in his past. _No shit, I knew that._

 

“Holy shit Keith—how the fuck didn’t he punch you out when he saw you again?” Shiro groans, running his prosthetic hand down his face.  

 

“That’s what I wanna know.” Keith moans, faceplanting into the countertop. “No wonder he hated me—that was such a dick thing to do.”

 

Hunk stops mixing the batter, taking in a deep breath before closing his eyes. “Wow….Lance didn’t tell me about that last part—just that you guys hooked up.”

 

Keith looks up at Hunk, a pout on his face as he tries to figure out how Hunk was feeling, his usual cheerful smile replaced with a neutral expression. He exhales slowly and bites his bottom lip. “It gets worse….”

 

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus, _Keith_.” Shiro runs a hand through his hair, suddenly looking tired and sleep-deprived. “How can it get worse?”

 

Keith winces, closing his eyes and looking down at the counter, unable to look at either Shiro or Hunk. “Last night, Lance lead me upstairs after the movie. I thought we were just gonna head to bed…then he shoved his tongue down my throat and tried getting in my pants.”

 

Hunk slams the skillet he was holding down on the counter, looking over at Keith and glaring daggers. “Keith, what the _fuck_ did you do to Lance last night?”

 

Keith’s eyes widen, tensing up and leaning away from the usually kind Samoan. “Nothing! He was obviously drunk so I didn’t do anything!” He quickly defended himself, struggling to hold eye contact with an enraged Hunk.

 

Hunk narrows his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest and stepping towards the Keith, leaning forward to look into Keith’s eyes. “Really?”

 

Keith nods, leaning further back. “Really—I knew he wouldn’t want to kiss me sober so…” He shrugs, his shoulders slouching as he curls in towards himself, mumbling softly. “Plus, after he told me I couldn’t—god, that made him so upset he started crying.”

 

Shiro looks between Hunk and Keith, then reaches over and put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Is that all?”

 

Keith bites his bottom lip and shakes his head. “No…after I calmed him down I tried apologizing and he got sick—I ended up crouched next to him in the bathroom feeding him saltines and making him drink water.” He closes his eyes again, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And when I apologized later on before we went to bed he was so touchy and cuddly—fuck, he was so cute. Then this morning he doesn’t remember anything.” He rests his forehead down on the counter, groaning.

 

Hunk turns back towards the kitchen, then checks the temperature of the skillet before pouring in some batter. “Karma finally came for you.”

 

Keith sighs heavily, slumping down further. “I know…. what should I do? I can’t apologize again because it won’t be the same.” He tilts his chin up to look at his brother, bottom lip puffed out slightly as he tries to think. “What should I do?”

 

“Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t come down here screaming yet.” Hunk comments, flipping some pancakes, not turning around as he addressed Keith. Keith wasn’t sure what to think of Hunk’s sudden attitude change, but this was a lot of info to take in at once. Plus, Lance is his best friend, of course he’d be protective of him.

 

Shiro furrows his brows as he thinks, sipping his coffee before carefully forming his next sentence. “Well, you obviously need to talk to Lance about this. But unless you can make a time machine and stop yourself from fucking him in college there’s nothing else you can do.”

 

Keith groans, letting his head fall and hit the counter again. “Y’know I suck at feelings—especially talking about them—how am I supposed to do that?”

 

The corner of Shiro’s mouth turns up slightly at the end, a light chuckle slipping past his lips. “Who said anything about feelings? I mean talk about what happened in college and last night. Does my lil bro have other feelings? Maybe _romantic_ feelings?” He coos, reaching over and ruffling Keith’s hair.

 

Keith blushes, sitting up and slapping Shiro’s hand away. “This is serious! I really hurt Lance! Besides it’s not like that—at least….” Keith pauses, furrowing his brows as he glares down at the counter in thought. What were his feelings for Lance? He liked hanging out with him, even outside of work, but he pushed all of Keith’s buttons and aggravated him. Plus, he found Lance attractive— _very_ attractive (obviously, they slept together before), but attraction didn’t equal affection. _Then why does your heart skip a beat every time you see him?_ He quickly shakes his head, then clears his throat before continuing. “Even if I did—which I’m not saying I do—I obviously ruined my chance. I’ll be lucky if he still wants to be friends after all this.”

 

Shiro reaches over and pats Keith’s shoulder, trying to comfort his brother in some way. “Well, you said you had a ‘bonding moment’, so that has to mean something, right?”

 

“Who had a bonding moment?” Keith turns so fast he’s surprised he didn’t snap his neck as he turns to see Lance, eyes widening and cheeks flushing in embarrassment at the vibrant blue eyes staring at him. Lance doesn’t seem to be bothered at all, a smile on his face as he walks in and pours himself a glass of water.

 

Keith frowns, getting tired of repeating himself and irked at Lance for blacking out last night. “Uh, we did? Last night?”

 

Lance shakes his head, popping himself to sit on the counter next to Hunk as the Samoan worked. “Nope. Don’t remember. Didn’t happen.”

 

Keith scoffs, throwing his arms up and almost smacking Shiro in the process. “We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms! C’mon—“

 

Lance sips his water, absentmindedly kicking his legs back and forth as he hums, head cocked to the side as he thinks. “Nope.”

 

Hunk nudges Lance’s side, pointing to the blueberries sitting next to him. He passes the blueberries to Hunk, taking one to munch on while Hunk finishes up cooking. “Better get some coffee before Pidge wakes up and drinks it all.”

 

“Hunk, if I don’t get food in my stomach before I drink coffee I’m probably gonna hurl.” Lance scrunches up his face, then takes another sip of his water. Keith finished his coffee, then goes to get himself another cup. Lance gasps, reaching out and slapping Keith’s hand away. “Don’t drink _all_ the coffee!”

 

Okay, no one interferes with Keith’s quest for coffee—especially after a late night—no matter how cute they are. Shiro gasps, putting a hand to his mouth as Keith’s face falls into a scowl, narrowing his eyes at Lance before grabbing the coffee pot roughly. “If Pidge finishes the pot I’ll make another one.” He pours himself some coffee, then glares at Lance as he sips his coffee.

 

Lance huffs, looking away from Keith with his nose turned up. Whatever, it was too early for this. He’d make it up to Lance after he was fully awake. He returned to his seat and nursed his coffee, deciding not to say anything else until breakfast until Lance spoke up again. “Why are the saltines out?”

 

Hunk glanced over at Keith, then looks back at Lance and shrugs. “Keith fed them to you last night.”

 

Lance’s eyes widened, gasping as he looks over at Keith, mouth hanging opened and a hand held to his chest. “Utter betrayal! No wonder I had a dry mouth this morning.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, sipping his coffee before grumbling out. “I made you drink water too.”

 

Lance puffs his cheeks out, looking down at his feet. “Still….wait!” His head snaps up, looking back over at Keith. “Didn’t you say that you liked me last night?”

 

“What?!” Keith screeched, blushing furiously and his eyes practically bulging out of his head. “No, I didn’t!” He stiffens up, glued to his seat as his face heats up. Of all the memories that could have come back it _had to be that damn it._

 

Lance hops off the counter, putting his glass down before walking towards Keith, slamming his hands against the counter beside the shorter male. “No—I remember asking what we were gonna do in bed—you said sleep like the party pooper that you are, BUT then you said to ask you again when I was sober!” Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders, cooing softly. “That what you wanted me to remember? That you wanna tap this hot piece of ass?”

 

Lance wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, wincing as Keith elbowed Lance’s side, somehow managing to blush harder. “That’s not what I meant! God—out of everything that’s what you remember? What the fuck Lance?”

 

“Hey—just the fact that I remember anything should be a miracle!” Lance huffs, rubbing his side where Keith elbowed him seconds earlier. “Shit Keith, why do you always get so violent?”

 

“I don’t always get violent.” Keith sips his coffee and turns away, trying to end this conversation topic.

 

Lance scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest and popping his hip out. “Oh yes you do, you greasy mullet.”

 

“Hey!”

 

“Guys.” Shiro chastises, putting a hand on both their shoulders and pushing them apart. When did they end up standing so close together? “Continue this after breakfast—by _talking._ Whoever throws a punch is getting a lecture.”

 

Keith and Lance both mumble out a confirmation, Shiro having Keith go wake everyone else for breakfast and Lance help him and Hunk set the table. Keith was grateful for the excuse to leave the room, needing a moment alone to compose himself and gather his thoughts. He runs a hand through his messy hair, his hair tie falling out and grimacing when his hand came back greasy. He quickly tied his hair up, taking a few deep breaths to help calm down. It’s been years since Keith’s gotten angry that fast. Why did Lance teasing him bother him so much? Was it because Lance only remembered the _one_ suggestive comment he made last night, or because he forgot everything else?

 

Keith exhales slowly, making his way upstairs to wake up Allura and Matt first, wishing he brought his coffee with him.

 

It was too early for this.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Breakfast was…kinda awkward. Lance was looking everywhere but at Keith, who could barely keep his eyes off of Lance, all the while Hunk was glaring at Keith and mumbling under his breath as he aggressively butters his pancakes. Shiro, oh pure, kind-hearted Shiro, did his best to try to diffuse the tension, but nothing seemed to help clear the air. Allura, Pidge, and Matt were half-asleep, not aware of the tense atmosphere until after the third cup of coffee. Allura and Matt kept trying to get Shiro’s attention, making strange faces at each other and seeming to have a silent conversation between the trio as couples do.

 

 Pidge kept glancing between Hunk, Lance, and Keith, seeming to piece together that Lance and Keith were the source of the tension. They clear their throat as they sip their fourth cup of coffee. “So…. last night was fun.” When Lance and Keith both tense up at the mention, Pidge couldn’t help but smirk. “Anything interesting happened once I passed out?”

 

Matt leaned over and flicked Pidge’s nose, causing the other to frown. “No marker on your face, so no.”

 

Keith sighs heavily, glad that the topic has been avoided so far. He didn’t want to talk to the group about it until he talked to Lance again. Anxiety started to grow in his stomach, clenching and unclenching as he wonders if he ruined his friendship with Lance over a stupid, childish mistake. _I knew I shouldn’t have come. My first close friend and I ruined it by getting drunk._ Keith slouched forward and rests his chin in his hand as his thoughts start spiraling downward. If he and Lance couldn’t be friends anymore they all couldn’t hang out—Keith was the late arrival to the group, so he’d probably be the one to go. Shiro would try to hang out with him still, but he’d stop hanging out with him over time. Work would be awkward—probably turn sour if things ended poorly with Lance. Worst case scenario he’d have to take his old job back. He slouches more in his chair, crestfallen at the idea of going back to Galra Gym. _Guess I’ll have to get used to steroids…_

 

Shiro elbows Keith’s sides, pulling him out of his negative thoughts as he looks up at his brother, raising an eyebrow. “What?” Shiro motions with his head towards Lance, who was looking over at Keith with a small pout. Keith blushes and glances away, clearing his throat and looking down at his plate. Shiro sighs, then stands up and drags Keith out of his chair. “Hey—“ 

 

“Nope.” Shiro curtly replies, dragging Keith out to the patio and blocking the door. “You’re gonna talk to Lance and get this sorted out like adults—the tension is so tight in there its suffocating.”

 

Keith groans and runs his hands down his face, sitting down on a lawn chair and hanging his head. “Can’t I just ignore him forever? Maybe move to another city?” He runs a hand through his hair, frowning and mumbling. “I could probably get my old job back…”

 

Shiro kneels down next to Keith and shakes his shoulder. “You can’t go back there, Keith. You left for a reason, remember?” Keith bit his bottom lip and gripped his hands, looking down and breathing deeply. Yeah, he knew why he left his last job—illegal fights, drug abuse, compromised morals—it wasn’t the best job in the world. _At least it didn’t come with the anxiety of making friends…_ “I know that you’re not really a people person, but you care about Lance, right?” Keith nods, gripping his hands tighter. “You want to keep hanging out with him, right?” Keith nods again, looking up at Shiro and raising an eyebrow. “Then you have to talk him—fix it before it gets worse. Who knows, maybe you’ll have a stronger relationship after this?”

 

Keith frowns, squirming in his seat under Shiro’s gaze. “What makes you say that?”

 

Shiro smiles and pats Keith’s shoulder. “Call it brother’s intuition. Now cool off before heading back inside, okay?”

 

Keith swallows and nods, biting his bottom lip. “I will…. thanks, Shiro.”

 

Shiro stands up and ruffles Keith’s hair, then heads back inside to join everyone else. Keith leans his head back and closes his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts. What was he gonna say to Lance about last night? Obviously, he remembered the saltine incident (or at least parts of the saltine incident), so was there any hope he’d remember his apology? _Probably not, so don’t give your hopes up._ He sighs heavily, running a hand through his bangs and frowning when his hair falls out of his ponytail again. He was in the middle of putting his hair back up when the door opens. Assuming it was just Shiro, Keith doesn’t bother to turn around as he speaks. “I’m not gonna tell him about my feelings, Shiro. It’s too early for that.”

 

“Oh damn, and here I was expecting to hear all about your feelings, Mullet.” Keith turns quickly, falling out of the chair and wincing as he hits the hard concrete, causing Lance to chuckle and hold a hand out to him. “You sure are jumpy today.”

 

Keith pouts, hesitating a bit before taking Lance’s hand to help him up. “I’m not jumpy…” He mumbles, looking down at the ground and fidgeting with his fingers.

 

When Keith doesn’t say anything else, Lance sighs, crossing his arms over his chest. “So…. how about last night and this morning, huh?” Lance tries to lighten the mood, letting out a nervous chuckle as he smiles crookedly and rubs the back of his head.

 

Keith blushes and shoves his hands in the pockets of his shorts, looking at nothing in particular. He wanted to be stubborn and just stay silent, let Lance do all the talking like he usually does, but Shiro’s nagging voice rings through his head. _You have to talk to him._ He inhales slowly, looking up at Lance through his bangs. “Yeah…I’m sorry about going off at ya before breakfast.”

 

Lance tenses up a bit, biting his bottom lip and taking a step away from Keith. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard.” Lance’s voice fades away towards the end of his sentence, hunching in and appearing smaller than he actually is.

 

Keith frowns, not liking Lance looking upset like that, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth and picking at his nails. It caused something in his gut to twist—this strange feeling to protect Lance from anything that could ever hurt him. He reached out and puts a hand on Lance’s arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as he looks up at Lance. “No, it wasn’t. I was an ass—both in there….and during college.”

 

Lance flushes a bit, eyes widening as he looks at Keith, jaw hanging open slightly before he looks away and clears his throat. “Yeah—you kinda were. You completely blew me off the first day of classes.”

 

Keith juts his bottom lip out a bit, raising an eyebrow questionably. “Wait, I did?”

 

Lance nods, leaning in towards Keith’s touch and smiling crookedly, the corner of his lips tilting up slightly. “Yeah, I remember walking up to you before class started and said, ‘nice legs, when do they open?’ and you just ignored me.”

 

Keith blushes, his eyes widening at the suggestive comment. “No—I’m pretty sure I’d remember if someone like you hit on me.”

 

Lance frowns a bit, leaning away from Keith. “What do you mean by that?”

 

“I mean I’d remember if a literal angel tried to pick me up at the beginning of class.”

 

Sometimes Keith’s bluntness paid off, because the red blush that bloomed across Lance’s face and chest was totally worth any embarrassment he felt about his forward comment. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Lance this flustered—he just kept stuttering and trying to speak, but kept stopping himself, closing his mouth, and looking away, holding his hand up to his mouth and letting out a low whine.

 

After what felt like an hour Lance closes his eyes and sighs heavily, whispering softly. “Gee Keith, you sure make it hard to hold a grudge.”

 

Keith looks away and runs a hand through his bangs, his heart sinking into his stomach. “I don’t blame you. If our situations were switched I’d be pissed.”

 

Lance hums, leaning forward and resting his forehead against Keith’s. “Sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have gotten drunk and _definitely_ shouldn’t have kept trying to get into your pants—even though you admitted that you would.”

 

Keith blushes and looks up at Lance, inhaling sharply when he realized just how close the other was. He gazes into bright blue eyes, surprised by the affection that he saw there, at least he thought it was affection. He swallows, glancing quickly down to Lance’s lips before looking back up. He noticed Lance do the same, starting to lean forward and close his eyes as the porch door slams open.

 

“KEITH, LANCE HOLY FUCK IS IT TRUE?!” Matt screams, Pidge, Allura, Hunk, and Shiro following right behind him. Lance and Keith instantly jump apart, creating a sizeable distance between themselves and trying to hide the redness from their faces.

 

Keith takes a calming breath before shooting a glare at Matt, bitter that the moment was interrupted. “What?”

 

Allura walks over and puts her hands on Keith’s shoulder, looking him in the eye and shaking him back and forth. “You slept with Lance in college?!”

 

Keith closes his eyes and winces, knowing once everyone found out there’d be drama. “…yeah.”

 

Pidge pops up beside Allura, leaning in close to his face. “And you forgot about him?”

 

Keith groans and looks away, starting to fidget with his fingers. He looks down, mumbling his next few words. “….yeah.”

 

Matt gasps, leaning against Shiro and fanning himself. “Oh my stars—“

 

Pidge reaches up and smacks the back of Keith’s head, causing him to yelp and lean back, rubbing the back of his head. “What the hell—Pidge!”

 

“What the fuck, bro?! How the hell do you forget something like that!” Pidge throws their hands up in the air, looking exasperated as they address Keith.

 

Allura shakes her head and tisks, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Honestly, Keith, I expected better from you.”

 

“Hey—college was rough—and I barely remember what happened last week, let alone 5 years ago.” Keith tried to defend himself, but not believing himself at all. He knew what he did wasn’t acceptable, but he was going to try to make it up to Lance. He deserves that.

 

Lance groans, running a hand down his face and leaning against Hunk. “Guys, it’s no big deal. We talked it out like adults and we’re cool.” He looks over at Keith, making sure to keep eye contact as he speaks again. “Right?”

 

Keith couldn’t help but flush lightly and nods, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, we’re good.”

 

Hunk wraps an arm around Lance’s shoulders, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looks at Keith. A shiver runs up Keith’s spine and he quickly looks away, knowing he still wasn’t on Hunk’s good side. It would take more than apologizing and talking to Lance for Hunk to be sated. Shiro manages to herd everyone inside, shooting a small smile over at Keith before vanishing inside.

 

Keith lags behind the rest of the group as he tries to remember his missing year of college. Flashes of parties, hook-ups, and hangovers coming to mind first. He tries sorting through the different parties, but after so many parties and so many blackouts everything tended to blend together. He sighs, rubbing his forehead at his budding headache. Not remembering anything important was starting to bother him.

 

Why couldn’t he remember something this important?

 

As important as Lance?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Zumba shenanigans in this chapter but never fear they'll be back in the next chapter!
> 
> and guess who finally found out how to add links in the end notes after 1,000,000 years
> 
> You can follow me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mammahen) for updates on my writing (and chapter previews too) and comments/kudos are always appreciated and make me smile


	9. So...This Is Awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith thought he could somehow avoid Lance forever, turns out he was wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay soooooooo I know this chapter is over a month late, but I had this chapter in the WIPs for a week and *right* when I was in the middle of writing it I got a hella bad cold that lasted for two weeks (seriously, I had like ever possible cold symptom and high fevers--104 degrees being the highest my fever was) so I was basically dead for two weeks and then *right* when I started feeling better I had to drop everything to move back into my dorm because surprise! My college started up again. I'm starting to get another runny nose/sore throat so lets hope I don't get sick again. 
> 
> Anyhoo, enjoy!

Besides the party, Keith’s weekend was uneventful. He spent his free time doing chores; cleaning his apartment, doing laundry, buying groceries—those kinds of things. He tried to keep himself busy, knowing that if he stopped his mind would begin to wander to...inappropriate things. But there were only so many chores he could do—he eventually tried to settle on watching movies on the Hallmark channel, but his mind kept wandering to the party. Specifically, to a certain blue-eyed boy with a great ass and _sinful_ legs that he knew how to use—

 

Nope, not gonna think about that.

 

The last thing Keith needed to do was think about what happened with Lance at the party. It took every ounce of strength he had not to fuck Lance so hard that he wouldn’t be able to walk straight. He couldn’t get the sight of Lance out of his head; face flushed, pupils blown wide and soft lips pressing against his warm skin, those hands that kept wandering _just_ where Keith wanted them, the way he rolls his hips against him—

 

But it wasn’t right.

 

Lance had been drinking—they both have—there’s no way Lance would want to sleep with him. He held a grudge against Keith for _years_ over a mistake (that they both made), he was just trying to get back at him. While Keith knew this, it didn’t do anything to help the blue balls he gave himself.

 

He ended up doing a _lot_ more workouts to get his mind off the subject.

 

The day after the party was also _extremely_ awkward—what with the tension between him and Lance, and Pidge, Matt, and Allura asking him a million and one questions about what happened junior year. Shiro had to play defense all morning until he could drop Keith off at his apartment. Matt and Allura he could distract with kisses—Pidge was the real challenge. Shiro sacrificed his prosthetic to Pidge for them to tinker with in order to distract them from the new drama in the friend group. Hunk basically gave Keith the cold shoulder after finding out the whole story of what happened junior year, which hurt Keith a lot more than he was expecting—guess he ended up getting closer to everyone than he first thought.

 

He didn’t expect the silent treatment to hurt so much.

 

On top of everything, Lance acted like nothing happened once everyone headed back inside to finish breakfast—granted, he forgot most of it because of blacking out, but he _definitely_ should have remembered the morning cuddles and cheek kiss. He was laughing and joking with everyone, and even kept trying to pull Keith into the conversation, but after the emotional rollercoaster the past two days were, Keith wasn’t in a talking mood.

 

When Monday came, his muscles were sore from all the burpees he did (he started with just pushups, but they didn’t tire him out fast enough). So, when he met Eva at the bakery he was grumpier than usual. It didn’t help that Eva kept asking questions about the party, putting him in an even worse mood.

 

“C’mon, Keith, buddy—you gotta tell me what happened at the party.” Eva nudges her elbow into Keith’s side as they wait for Beth to finish making their coffee.

 

Keith groans and pinches the bridge of his nose, shifting his weight to one foot as he looks down. “Nothing.”

 

Eva rolls her eyes, taking a bite of her muffin, not believing Keith at all. Beth sets two coffee cups down, her brows furrowed as she addresses Keith. “It must have been a whole lot of ‘nothing’ if Lance called during date night.”

 

Keith slides a hand down his face and grumbles, his memory slightly fuzzy from that part of the night. “Oh right—that’s why you weren’t at the party.”

 

Eva wiggles her eyebrows and smirks suggestively, leaning over the counter and kissing her girlfriend’s cheek. “I was at a _different_ party that night—in Beth’s pants.”

 

Beth groans and gently shoves her girlfriend away after kissing her cheek. “Hush—I gotta make the rest of Keith’s order.”

 

Eva raises an eyebrow, bumping Keith’s hip with her own. “What’s with the mass order? You everyone’s coffee bitch?”

 

Keith sighs and nods, sipping his own coffee as they wait. “Yep—apparently I was obvious about my apparent ‘feelings’ for Lance and everyone is blackmailing me not to tell him.”

 

Eva smiles widely and laughs, smacking Keith’s arm. “Oh my god! I knew you liked him!”

 

Keith blushes brightly and yelps, shoulders hiking up to his ears as he covers where Eva hit him with his hand. “I don’t! Everyone just thinks I do!”

 

Eva hums, standing on her toes to rest her elbow on Keith’s shoulder. “Admit it. At this rate, you’re gonna owe me fifty bucks, boy.”

 

Keith’s face falls, setting his cup down on the counter and crossing his arms. “I’m fairly confident I’m winning the bet. Lance isn’t going to date me.”

 

“Dude, I see how he looks at you. Why wouldn’t he date you?”

 

He bites his bottom lip and looks down at the ground, mumbling softly. “Because we hooked up in college and I forgot.” He glances up at Eva, expecting the same reaction he got from everyone else, mentally bracing himself.

 

Eva blinks, taking a long sip of her coffee before shrugging. “So? People do stupid shit in college—you can’t remember _all_ the stupid shit you did.”

 

Keith’s eyes widen a bit, his mouth opening and closing as he tries to form his next sentence. “Wait—Wait—you’re not upset?”

 

Eva rolls her eyes, bumping her shoulder against Keith’s arm and smiling crookedly. “Why would I? Shit happens. It’s not like you did the same thing Saturday.” Keith looks away and bites his bottom lip, crossing his arms tighter against his chest. Eva’s eyes widen, reaching out and gripping Keith’s arms. “Keith, did you do it again? Cus if you did—“

 

“I didn’t—we didn’t—nothing happened!” Keith fumes, cheeks a bright crimson as he tries to avoid eye contact with Eva. “Well… _I_ didn’t.”

 

Eva’s eyes widen, excitedly tapping her hand against Keith’s bicep. “Oh my god! Did Lance try to hit it and you said no?!”

 

Beth sets a travel tray of four coffees on the counter, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips and shaking her head. “Eva, inside voice.”

 

Eva winces, smiling sheepishly over Beth before loudly whispering. “Sorry bon-bon.” She turns towards Keith and smacks his arm again, continuing to whisper loudly. “But seriously, dude. Don’t leave me hanging!”

 

Keith sighs heavily as his shoulders slump, closing his eyes and whispering so as not to disturb the others in the bakery. “Well…Lance got a little… _handsy_. But we didn’t do anything besides kiss—nothing over PG-13.”

 

Eva’s eyes widen, excitedly slapping Keith’s arm repeatedly. “Oh my god—I’m gonna need to ask him for details—“

 

“No!” Keith’s eyes widen as he looks around, noticing others looking at them before looking back at Eva and whispering. “You can’t—he blacked out and forgot.”

 

Beth sets another drink tray full of coffee down, shaking her head slightly as she stacks them for Keith to carry. “Guess karma came for you.”

 

He groans and hangs his head, reaching forward and taking the trays from Beth. “Tell me about it.” He deadpans, shaking his head again. “But it’s nothing—we talked and we’re just gonna be friends.”

 

Eva tisks, then shakes her head and sips her coffee. “Guess that’s the best you can do.”

 

Keith furrows his brows, heading towards the door so they could start walking to work. “Bite me.”

 

Eva laughs, blowing a kiss to Beth before following Keith and opening the door for him. “You couldn’t afford it—especially with being everyone’s coffee bitch.”

 

Keith huffs as he walks through the door, bumping Eva’s hip as he passes her. “Shut up. We’re gonna be late for work.”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith was just about done delivering coffee to his blackmailers, passing out coffee left and right due to the quantity of blackmailers he currently has (seriously, how did it get this bad?) Allura, Shiro, and Pidge were all appreciative of their coffee, though Shiro had laughed and said he wasn’t serious. Oh well, just one less person to buy coffee for. Pidge and Allura thoroughly appreciated the coffee, and expected it to be a regular thing from now on. The only blackmailer he had left to give coffee to was Hunk…

 

If he was being honest, he was kinda scared to talk to Hunk—okay, terrified. Especially after what happened at the party.

 

After getting to know Hunk these past few months, Keith had started to see Hunk as a good friend. Hunk was friendly, supportive, kind—hell, he was downright sassy and savage at times. But not once, in two months, had Keith seen Hunk mad, like actually mad; a bit irked and annoyed, yeah, but angry, not once. Hunk seemed to have abundant patience, which is why he worked well with kids, so seeing Hunk go from zero to one hundred in 0.2 seconds shocked Keith severely. The rage visible in Hunk’s eyes as he glared into Keith’s very soul shook him to his core.

 

So needless to say, Keith was _very_ hesitant to approach Hunk. At all. But it had to be done sooner or later.

 

Keith takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, before heading into the employee lounge where Hunk was getting ready for the day. He clears his throat, causing the Samoan to glance his way. Hunk frowns before turning back to his locker, putting his items into his locker. Keith winces, hurt by Hunk’s reaction, but figuring that was probably one of the better reactions he could have gotten.

 

He walks over and sets the coffee cup down next to Hunk, clearing his throat again. “I—Uh—got you coffee. You never told me what kind you liked so I had to ask Beth what you usually got.”

 

Hunk glances over at the coffee cup, then snaps his eyes up to Keith. He glares at Keith, eyes narrowing as he turns to face him, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his chin up. “What are your intentions with Lance?”

 

Keith jumps, hardly expecting Hunk to talk to him at all—let alone ask about Lance—completely throwing him off guard. “What—?”

 

Hunk stands up, stepping over the bench and poking Keith’s chest, emphasizing his point by poking in between each word. “What. Are. Your. Intentions. With. Lance.”

 

Keith blushes lightly, taking a step back as he tries to gather his thoughts. “Nothing—I’m not planning anything!”

 

Hunk narrows his eyes, taking a step closer and leaning down to get eye level with Keith. “Do you like him?”

 

“Yes—no—I don’t know—“ Keith groans, leaning back and running a hand through his hair. “Hunk, I just don’t know. We’re just going to be friends—nothing more.”

 

Hunk stares at Keith, holding eye contact for over a minute before speaking again. “Do you promise not to hurt Lance?”

 

Keith nods quickly, then speaks quickly after realizing that may not be enough. “I promise. Hurting Lance is the last thing I want to do.”

 

Hunk narrows his eyes a bit, searching Keith’s face for any signs of dishonestly before letting out a deep breath and smiling crookedly. “Good. Just know that if you do I’m gonna make you regret the day you were born, Kogane.” He turns around and grabs his coffee off the bench, then pats Keith’s shoulder as he walks out. “Though I’m keeping an eye on you.”

 

Keith presses his lips together, still feeling a bit uneasy. _That was way too easy…_ “That’s it?”

 

Hunk stops, turning around and raising an eyebrow as he sips his coffee. “Want more?”

 

Keith’s eyes widen and he shakes his head, holding a hand out defensively. “No, no! Its just….” He looks down, fiddling with the cardboard holder in his hands as his voice lowers. “I guess I expected more since you were so angry on Saturday…”

 

Hunk sighs, walking over and putting a heavy hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Yeah, I was angry—and I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not still a little…” He pauses, tilting his head a bit to pick his words carefully, “ _upset,_ but it happened back in college.” He smiles crookedly, gently patting Keith’s shoulder. “I know you now, and you’ve obviously changed since then. That being said….” Hunk squeezes Keith’s shoulder, causing Keith to wince at the pain, “Lance is my best friend, and I’ll do whatever I need to protect him. Got it?”

 

Keith nods quickly, reaching up and trying to pry Hunk’s fingers loose. “I got it—“

 

Hunk smiles, this smile more honest than the one before. “Good. Thanks for the coffee.” He releases Keith’s shoulders, turning around and exiting the staff room.

 

Keith winces and rubs his shoulder, glad that he was on speaking terms with Hunk again, at least for the time being. He exhales slowly, then sets down his drink carrier and starts putting his things in his locker. He throws his duffle bag inside, changing into his workout shoes and letting himself relax for the time being. It wasn’t until he glanced over at the drink carrier, looking at the two remaining cups did his gut clench with nerves. He finishes getting ready for work, picking up the two drinks and taking a deep breath to steady himself before heading out of the employee lounge.

 

Guess it was time to find Lance.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After searching for a half hour, Keith found Lance in dance studio two, standing in front of a crowd of at least 30 people. He was dressed in an off the shoulder sweatshirt with ‘getting bi’ printed on the front and black bootie shorts—wearing a pair of black heel ankle boots. Keith must have arrived at a bad time, because Lance was busy counting out and demonstrating the moves for the dance as his class follows along. He leans against the doorway, absentmindedly sipping his coffee as he watches Lance teach his class.

 

 Keith couldn’t help but worry about Lance, remembering how he limped after his performance Friday. Allura was hesitant to let Lance teach these classes—something about an old injury and needing surgery. What sort of injury was Lance hiding? Keith frowns as he tries to think of what injuries Lance could have that would require surgery if not properly healed. The first that came to mind was a torn ligament, but that wouldn’t necessarily require surgery—unless it was a torn patella tendon—but that was more common in athletes than Zumba instructors. Besides, if it was a torn or damaged ligament, then Lance would constantly be in pain until it healed. It wouldn’t just come and go with increased activity. Tendonitis typically comes from increased physical activity, but a few days of rest, some stretches, and a brace if necessary is all that’s really needed with tendonitis. Keith watches Lance move, trying to see if he could see any sign that he was hurting and coming up dry. If Lance was in any sort of pain, he was hiding it well behind a bright smile, but that didn’t stop Keith from worrying for his friend.

 

His eyes slowly drift down Lance’s figure again, hating how amazing his legs (and ass) look when he’s wearing heels. He really should come back later, but seeing Lance bending and posing for a few minutes wouldn’t hurt…. right? Seeing Lance dance on Friday was one thing, seeing Lance _teaching_ was another. He kept stopping to give his students pointers—usually in some ridiculous pose like his ass sticking out or grabbing his crotch. It wasn’t as memorizing or alluring as his performance-level dance on Friday, but Keith couldn’t make himself look away.

 

He wasn’t sure how long he stood in the doorway watching Lance, but the moment his eyes met Lance’s a blush creeps up to his cheeks and he jumps, quickly averting his eyes and looking away. Crap. He was caught staring red handed. Keith was trying to convince his legs to move when a hand slams next to his face, causing him to jump and look up at Lance’s dazzling smile.

 

“Like what you see, Mullet man?” Lance coos, his hips gently swaying back and forth, towering over Keith in those stupid heel boots.

 

Keith blushes and frowns, looking down at the ground and leaning back a bit. “No, not at all.”

 

Lance rolls his eyes, popping his hip out and putting his hands on his hip as he cocks an eyebrow quizzically. “Oh, really? Then why were you staring?”

 

Keith swallows loudly, ignoring how hot his face felt as he shoves the second cup of coffee towards Lance. “I got you coffee. Bye.” He quickly turns on his heel and walks away as fast as he could, ignoring the calls from Lance as he makes his escape.

 

 He didn’t stop until he made it to the weight room, ignoring his rapidly beating heart as he puts his cup of coffee down on the staff desk near the entrance. God, getting caught staring at Lance was enough embarrassment to last him a lifetime. Keith is just glad that no one else was able to witness the awkward encounter.

 

Today was going to be a _very_ long day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

“C’mon Keith, you guys work in the same building—you’re gonna have to see him eventually. You can’t hide from Lance forever.” Shiro hums, typing away at the computer to work out scheduling for the weight room.

 

Keith huffs, blowing his bangs off of his forehead before he goes back to mopping the floor, starting to prep for close. “Oh yeah? Watch me.”

 

Shiro sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose before he shakes his head. “Didn’t you guys say you talked? You told everyone that you two were gonna be cool. Avoiding Lance isn’t being ‘cool’, Keith.”

 

Keith groans, letting his head fall forward to rest on top of the mop handle, his body starting to go slack. “We did and we are. It’s just….” He pauses, chewing on his bottom lip as he tries to think of what to say next, “It’s just I need to figure something out first.”

 

Shiro raises an eyebrow, taking a second to process what Keith said before a knowing smirk spreads across his face. “Oh, you mean figure out your feelings for Lance.”

 

“What?! No!” Keith sputters, nearly falling over as he turns to glare at his older brother. “That’s not it.”

 

“Really? What else would you need to figure out that you’d need to avoid Lance for?” Shiro wiggles his eyebrows, laughing as Keith sputters again and looks away, grumbling under his breath before he continues to mop the floor. “Y’know, I’m pretty sure Lance likes you too.”

 

Keith blushes and groans again, running a hand through his hair and pulling it out of the ponytail he put it in earlier. “I don’t think so, Shiro.”

 

Shiro sighs, turning back to the computer and starting to type again. “Fine, deny it all you want. But I get to say I told you so if it’s true.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, putting the mop in the bucket and wringing it out a final time once he was done. “Yeah, sure, okay.” He curtly replies, then starts wheeling the mop and bucket back to the cleaning supply closet, not looking before opening the door and running right into the last person he wanted to see—Lance.

 

Lance yelps as the door hits him right in the nose, his hands flying up to cradle his nose as his eyes start to water. “What the fuck—Keith!”

 

Keith’s eyes widen and he drops the mop handle, letting it clatter to the ground as he reaches hesitantly towards Lance. “Shit—Shit—Lance are you okay?”

 

Lance closes his eyes tightly as he lets out a whimper, keeping his nose hidden behind his hands. “Do I fucking look okay? You probably broke my nose!”  

 

Keith frowns, reaching up and trying to pry Lance’s hands away. “I doubt it. Let me see.”

 

“No! You’ll just make it worse!” Lance whines, clenching his hand in a protective cage around his nose as he takes a step back.

 

Keith narrows his eyes, taking a step closer and reaching out towards Lance again. “No I won’t—let me check to see if it’s really broken.” Lance just steps out of his way, quickly shaking his head. Keith nearly growls, jumping over and wrapping his arms around Lance to keep him in place, ignoring when Lance yelps and starts squirming.

 

“Keith! Let me go!” Lance starts squirming harder, causing Keith to have to tighten his grip on the wiggly Cuban.

 

“Stay still—I just want to check your nose damn it!” Keith picks Lance up and slings him over his shoulder, ignoring Lance’s protests as he carries him into the weight room and sets him on top of the desk.

 

Lance huffs, looking away and crossing one arm over his chest, keeping his other hand over his nose. Keith sighs, going to get some paper towels in case it was bleeding. “Just let me look at it—I know a broken nose when I see one, and if it is you’ll need to go to a hospital for them to set it properly.”

 

Lance narrows his eyes, then huffs before taking his hand away, a small trail of blood dripping down his face. “Fine, but if its broken you owe me big time.”

 

Keith reaches up and gently dabs the blood away, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Thought I already did.” He looks over Lance’s nose, reaching up and lightly running his finger along the bridge of his nose. “That hurt?” Lance shakes his head, biting his bottom lip and suddenly going quiet. Keith looks at Lance’s nose from different angles, his brows furrowing. “Your nose isn’t swollen or crooked, and there isn’t bruising around your nose or eyes.” Keith takes a step back, putting his hands on his hips. “So, your nose isn’t broken.”

 

Lance nods, quickly hopping off the counter and quickly walking towards the door. “Okay, bye!” Keith goes to warn Lance about the mop on the floor right as he trips on the wooden handle, just barely catching himself before pushing the door open and storming out of the weight room.

 

Keith raises an eyebrow, glancing over at Shiro quietly sitting at the desk, wondering why his brother was quiet throughout the whole ordeal. “What’s up with you?”

 

Shiro glances back at his computer, smiling crookedly before continuing to type. “Nothing.”

 

Keith narrows his eyes, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. “There’s definitely something, spill.”

 

Shiro stops typing, then looks up at Keith before smiling wider. “Just noticed how gentle you were being with Lance when checking his nose.”

 

Keith flushes lightly, looking away and huffing. “I’m always gentle when checking for injuries.”

 

“Yeah right—when I broke my ankle in tenth grade your way of checking if it was broken was to slap it.”

 

“ _Oh my god_ Shiro I was in Middle school _.”_ He groans out, running a hand down his face slowly.

 

Shiro rolls his eyes, then leans back in his chair and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “You still should have known better. Why can’t you just admit that you like Lance and ask him out?”

 

“Because it’s not that simple…” Keith fidgets, biting his bottom lip as he looks down.

 

“Yes, it is. You’re just making it too complicated.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, grabbing the mop off the floor and puts it back in the bucket. “I’m not. Besides, Lance wouldn’t want to date me anyway, remember?”

 

Shiro rolls his eyes again, reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose. “You said you guys got over that.”

 

Keith shrugs, slowly opening the door so as not to hit anyone else. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean Lance wants to date me.” Before Shiro could respond Keith slips out the door, deciding to distract himself by putting the mop and bucket away like he intended to do earlier.

 

Thank god, the day was almost over.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith made sure to take his time cleaning up the weight room, being extra through when cleaning the equipment in the hopes of avoiding Lance in the employee lounge. It was almost an hour after close by the time Keith sneaks into the employee lounge to get his things. He opens his locker, deciding to take his time changing out of his work clothes since no one else was there.

 

Or so he thought.

 

Right when Keith was in the middle of taking his shorts off the employee lounge door flings open, the last person Keith wants to see walking in, Lance. Keith blushes a bit and squeaks, quickly pulling his shorts back up as he glares at the blue-eyed boy standing in the doorway. “What are you doing here so late?”

 

Lance tenses up a bit, then walks over to his locker slowly before opening it up and shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “Prep for tomorrow’s class.”

 

Keith flushes and glances towards his locker, immediately getting uncomfortable at the awkward tension surrounding them. He mumbles softly, taking off his shirt to put on a fresh one. “Didn’t think you’d have the energy after teaching so many classes.”

 

Lance looks over at Keith, frowning and putting his hands on his hips. “Whatcha mean by that?”

 

Keith shrugs as he slips on his clean shirt, running a hand through his hair to ruffle it a bit. “Nothing. Just that I figured you’d be too tired by the end of the day to even consider prep.”

 

Lance huffs, turning away and starting to grab things out of his locker, grabbing a towel, fresh set of clothes, and a shower caddy full of products. “Maybe you might not be able to, but I have _tons_ of energy.”

 

Keith knew that tone. That’s the tone of voice Lance uses that ends up with him doing some stupid challenge. He knew he should be an adult and ignore it, but this nagging feeling in the back of his head wouldn’t let him. “I’d totally be able to handle it.”

 

Lance glances over at Keith, putting the towel around his neck so he could hold his other things easier. He raises an eyebrow, popping his hip out as he tilts his head to the side. “You think so, mullet? Wanna make a bet?”

 

Keith narrows his eyes slightly, crossing his arms across his chest and shifting his weight to one side. “Depends what it is.”

 

“Tomorrow, you come to _every_ one of my classes. If you leave early—or pass out—then you lose. If you can survive the whole day then you win. Winner makes the loser do what they want.”

 

Keith pauses, then bites his bottom lip, remembering how intense Lance’s classes can get at times. But he also couldn’t say no to that cocky smirk on Lance’s face. He didn’t know if he’d rather wipe it off his face by winning the bet or kissing him. “Fine, you’re on. I’ll go to all your classes tomorrow.”

 

Lance smiles, turning on his heels to start heading towards the employee shower rooms. “Cool, see you there. Make sure you don’t pass out.”

 

Keith narrows his eyes at Lance’s retreating figure, wondering why his heart felt a little tug when he saw the other smile. “I won’t.”

 

Lance waves dismissively before vanishing behind the shower room doors. Keith huffs, then turns towards his locker and finishes getting dressed, putting on black jeans in place of his shorts. He didn’t know how Lance managed to rope him into doing whatever the other wanted—maybe it was that crooked smile and how his eyes light up at the idea of a challenge—but it was really starting to interfere with his work. Sure, he didn’t have any clients scheduled to come in tomorrow, but that didn’t mean one couldn’t just walk in and request him. Keith sighs, knowing he’d have to ask Shiro to cover for him tomorrow (probably with more coffee as a bribe). He wondered what Allura would think, a sinking feeling in his gut as he realized that Allura would see him at all the classes tomorrow. He groans, running a hand down his face as he wonders what to tell her. _Eh, I’ll have Shiro tell her, she can’t get too mad at her boyfriend._

 

Keith finishes gathering his things and heads out to his bike parked outside, glancing back at the gym before sliding on his helmet and starting to drive home, his mind wandering to the man he left behind at the gym.

 

He ended up doing a lot more workouts when he got home that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry there's no Zumba dancing in this chapter, but I promise it'll actually show up in the next chapter! 
> 
> Also! I got another VLD fic that I'm working on that's centered around Pidge called [Achieving Flight](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11484477/chapters/25757781) that's an Avian AU, so if ya want go ahead and give it a read (it'll be updating next cus they've also been waiting over a month...my b)
> 
> Comments/Kudos always appreciated! I love reading all your comments, they just make my day <3 
> 
>  
> 
> Follow me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mammahen) for updates on my writing or just to scream at me about Voltron or my fics


	10. Confusing Feelings and Dances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith regrets taking this bet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay first I want to say thanks for everyone for being so patient (and a special shout out to all the supportive comments on the author's note chapter, y'all rock <3) I deleted it so it wouldn't disrupt the flow for future readers, but long-story short it basically said life got in the way but everything's good now so I got back to writing so updates shouldn't take so long anymore. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

“C’mon, Shiro, _please!_ ” Keith whined into the phone currently shoved between his shoulder and ear, trying to talk to Shiro and make dinner at the same time.

 

“Keith, you’re my brother and I love you. But I doubt even _I_ could get Allura to let you ditch all day tomorrow—especially for a bet with Lance.” Shiro chastises, the muffled noise of a tv in the background floating through the speaker.

 

Keith pouts, glaring down at the vegetables he was chopping up for his impromptu stir fry. “Didn’t you say that I had to work things out with Lance? Well that’s what I’m trying to do—if you’d _let_ me.”

 

“Hey—I did, but only because you two are just so awkward around each other. Seriously, you could cut the tension with a knife. I just don’t see how a bet is going to help.”

 

Keith closes his eyes, trying to suppress the small flame of rage building in his gut. The whole reason he and Lance became friends in the first place was because of those stupid bets—so that’s the best way for them to go back to normal. Can’t Shiro see why without him explaining it? “ _Because!_ ”

 

Shiro sighs, Keith practically hearing his eyes roll through the phone. “That doesn’t sound like the tone of someone who’s asking their amazing, wonderful, big brother for a favor.” He coos, causing Keith to bite back his next comment. “If you just tell me _why_ it’s important, I’ll see what I can do.”

 

Keith groans, pausing his task of making dinner so he could properly hold the phone and run a hand through his hair. “ _Because_ if I do this stupid bet, things will go back to normal! Okay?!”

 

There’s a brief moment of silence on Shiro’s end of the line, the silence causing Keith to wait on pins and needles for a response. “…You _really_ think a bet is the best way to resolve things with Lance?”

 

“Oh my god—for the hundredth time—yes!” Keith says exasperatedly, throwing his free hand up in the air. He’s been telling Shiro this for the past thirty minutes—he expected just a quick call, not a full-blown lecture from his brother.

 

Shiro sighs heavily, taking a moment to himself before replying. “Alright—fine. I’ll talk to Allura—but you owe me one.”

 

Keith sighs in relief, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Thanks—I owe you one, big time.”

 

Shiro hums in agreement, Keith practically hearing Shiro smirk. “Y’know I’m gonna cash that in at the _worst_ possible time, right?”

 

“I know,” he groans, leaning against the counter and looking down at his feet, “I don’t care—I have to do this.”

 

“Alright—I’ll see what I can do. See you tomorrow.”

 

Keith hums, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Thanks, see you tomorrow.”

 

 He pockets his phone, letting out a heavy sigh as he ties his hair up. He goes back to chopping up the remaining vegetables, praying in the back of his mind that Shiro could convince Allura to let him go to Lance’s Zumba classes tomorrow. _Though…. will this bet_ really _help things go back to normal?_ Keith quickly shakes his head, telling himself that the best way for him and Lance to resolve the awkward tension between them was to pretend the party didn’t happen and go back to acting like they did before.

 

Keith dumps his chopped-up vegetables in the hot wok, sautéing the vegetables as he frowns, wondering if he wanted him and Lance to go back to how they were before…. everything. He absentmindedly stirs his food, reminiscing on his first time seeing Lance at Voltron Gym—remembering the silly blue crop top and booty shorts that lead _nothing_ to the imagination—and also how Lance stormed out after Allura hired him. How they managed to be somewhat friends in the two months he’s been there, he doesn’t know. But he does know that he liked having Lance as a friend.

 

He stops stirring his food, frowning at his drink sitting on the counter.

 

Why did he like having Lance as a friend?

 

Keith had a reputation as a ‘lone wolf’ when he was younger, but he still had friends (despite what Shiro says). They _might_ have only hung out at school or right afterwards, but they had more stuff in common.

 

He didn’t know if he had anything in common with Lance except their competitiveness and stubbornness. Lance was loud, obnoxious, social, and flirty—while Keith was quiet, off-putting, antisocial, and (if Allura and Shiro are to be believed) rude.

 

They’re complete opposites.

 

Keith’s eyes widen a bit, coming to the realization that if he didn’t take this job, he most likely never would have seen Lance again. He’d never see his blinding smile, or his bright blue eyes, or hear him laugh. His heart sinks at the thought of Lance not being in his life.

 

Wait.

 

Why does he care so much?

 

He quickly shakes his head, banishing the thought before it could go any further.  Keith and Lance were just friends, nothing more.

 

_That’s not a normal reaction to have for a friend._

 

A loud, obnoxious metallic screech fills the kitchen, startling Keith out of his thoughts and bringing him back into the kitchen. His eyes widen as he sees his dinner on fire. “Shit—” He quickly turns off the stove, running the wok over to the sink and throwing it in before turning the water on to submerge the flames in water. “Shit shit shit.” He reaches up to turn the annoying smoke detector off, then runs around to open all the windows to let the smoke out of the kitchen.

 

Keith sighs heavily, slowly walking into the kitchen and peeking into the sink. When he sees the flames have been extinguished, he turns off the water and looks at what little remained of the vegetables he spent so much time prepping and cooking.

 

A chill runs up his spine as a cold breeze fills his apartment, taking some of the smoke out with the wind and sapping the warmth out of the room. He frowns, picking up his long-forgotten drink and taking his phone out of his pocket.

 

“Guess I’m having pizza.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Keith, are you sure you want to take the day off from personal training?” Nyma asks, looking up from her computer and shooting a confused look at Keith.

 

“Yes—I’m sure. Besides, Shiro thinks today will be slow anyway.” Keith shrugs, leaning against the receptionist desk as he sips his coffee. “I already got permission from Allura. I’m just telling you to redirect anyone asking for me to Shiro—at least for today.”

 

Nyma shrugs, then turns towards her computer and starts typing away. “Alright. But if one of your regulars come in and bitch you’re buying me coffee.”

 

Keith groans, slumping forward and hitting his head against the counter. “Ugh—fine.”

 

Nyma smirks, not even bothering to look up from her computer as she addresses Keith. “At least I’m not blackmailing you like everyone else.”

 

Keith quickly looks up at Nyma, eyes widen, and brows furrowed. “Who told you--? How much do you know?”

 

Nyma rolls his eyes, glancing at Keith and crossing her legs. “Keith, the staff is relatively small and loves to gossip. Plus, there’s a bet on when you and Lance will start dating.”

 

He glares, standing up and crossing his arms. “Eva?”

 

“Eva.”

 

“What about me?” Eva pops up beside Keith, smiling at Nyma. “Hey girl, got my class scheduled today?”

 

Nyma smiles and nods, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. “Yep—same time and place as last time.”

 

“Nyma, you are the wind beneath my wings—what would I do without you?” Eva smiles, leaning against the counter.

 

“Schedule your own classes.” Nyma laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

 

Eva laughs, then nudges Keith with her shoulder. “True. So, what were you guys saying about me before I showed up?”

 

Keith glares at Eva, crossing his arms and huffing. “About that stupid bet you set up about me.”

 

Eva blinks, titling her head slightly. “Which one?”

 

Keith’s eyes widen, jaw falling open. “Which one—how many do you have?!”

 

Eva rolls her eyes upward, counting out on her fingers. “Well, there’s one about how many people you dated, whether you hatched out of an egg or not, then there’s one about when you and Lance will start dating, _another_ one about who will ask out who—”

 

“Wait—hatched from an egg—who thinks I was hatched from an egg?”

 

Eva waves her hand dismissively. “Not important. Did you forget about that bet we had?”

 

Keith frowns, growing more irritated by the second, he didn’t drink enough coffee for this. “No, Nyma just told me about the bet going around the office about whether Lance and I will start dating.”

 

“Not if, when. There’s a difference.”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, picking up his coffee cup and starting to walk away. “Whatever—it’s not going to happen.”

 

Eva laughs, calling after Keith as he walks away. “Say it all you want! It’s happening!”

 

Keith flips Eva off as he walks away, causing the shorter girl to laugh louder.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith was in the middle of tying his hair up when he feels someone bump into him. He turns to shoot a glare at the offender, but pauses as his eyes lock onto a familiar set of blue eyes and quickly bites his tongue. He glances away and goes back to putting his hair up, mumbling out. “What? Thought I wouldn’t show?”

 

Lance rests his arm on Keith’s shoulder and smiles crookedly, leaning against Keith heavily. “Kinda. I figured Allura wouldn’t let ya.”

 

Keith glares over at Lance, knocking his arm off of his shoulder and causing Lance to stumble. “Why? I don’t have any clients scheduled today and it’s not supposed to be that busy in the weight room.”

 

Lance narrows his eyes, crossing his arms and bumping Keith with his hip. “Just try not to pass out, mullet. Class is starting.”

 

Lance goes and joins Allura at the front of the classroom and everyone soon files into place. Keith manages to get a spot closer to the back, noticing the frown on Lance’s face before its replaced by a wide smile. “Alright! Who’s ready to start?”

 

The whole class cheers, the majority obviously morning people if they’re taking a morning Zumba class. Keith’s brows furrowed, mentally preparing himself to push his body to the limit today, determined to prove Lance wrong. He and Lance end up locking eyes in the mirror, keeping eye contact for longer than necessary before Allura starts leading the class in a warm up dance.

 

The day was just beginning.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith lets out a deep breath, in the middle of his second class of the day and already getting tired. The first class wasn’t too bad, but there was only a half hour break in between the first and second class, so Keith didn’t have much of a recovery period before the second class began. He pushes his bangs out of his forehead, damp with sweat and starting to regret taking this challenge. _Why did I have to do this on a day Lance has four classes?_

 

Allura smiles widely as she claps her hands together, barely breaking a sweat and her hair put up in a perfectly high ponytail that swished behind her. “Okay guys! The next song is a Lance song—I hope you guys are ready!”

 

Lance smiles as he bounces over to the playlist, scrolling for the song he was looking for, a mixture of groans and cheers in response to Allura. “C’mon guys—it’s not that bad, I promise.”

 

Lance presses play on the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVcOKsVgRw) and quickly takes his place at the front of the classroom, a wide smile on his face as he bounces in place quickly. “Okay, 5, 6, 7, 8.” He steps to the side and pushes his arms down, then repeats the move on the opposite side, easily bouncing along with the music. Keith easily follows along, finding the beginning of the dance to be simple, but knowing Lance, could change at any second.

 

Lance and Allura glance at each other quickly before transitioning to the next move, stepping to the right, then crossing their left foot behind their right before stepping out again, their arms crossing in and out in front of them at the same time. They bring their feet together, then tap their left right forward quickly, then repeat the same move on the other side, Lance calling out the moves a second before to make the quick paced song easier to follow. A second later, the pair of Zumba instructors turn to the right, stepping their right foot forward and boxing their arms, moving them up and down twice before bouncing to switch their feet and turn to the other side.

 

The two instructors repeat the moves on the other side, then run through the sequence again. Keith was starting to get bored already—they weren’t even a minute into the song and they’ve only done the same move four times. _If this is how all of Lance’s classes are, I’m definitely gonna win._ Lance and Allura bring their feet together quickly, raising their hands up and start to ruffle their hair as they jump from foot to foot. On the third and forth jump, they raise their hands up in the air, then bring them down before throwing their arms out to the side. They repeat the move one more time, before Lance grins and turns around to face the class.

 

“Feet together!” He jumps out, throwing his arms out to the side before quickly jumping back up with his feet together, his arms circling down and up before coming together. He grins as he moves his hands down in front of his body, rolling his body as his hands pass. Keith fumbles a bit at his transition—if you ask him later, it definitely wasn’t because Lance happened to look his way when he did the body roll—but he quickly gets back on track. They do the jump/body roll combo again, before another new move comes up. Lance brings his arms up in front of him, then starts jumping from side to side, leading with his shoulders as he bounces from foot to foot, occasionally bouncing on the same side twice when it matched with the music. The jump/body roll move pops up again, and Keith struggles not to falter again when his eyes lock on Lance’s hips _right_ as they roll forward. Keith quickly shakes his head, deciding to keep his eyes strictly on Allura to avoid getting distracted again.

 

After repeating the jumping and swaying move again, the instructors flawlessly transition to the next move—which Keith totally doesn’t know how to describe, let alone _do._ All he knows is that its something funky with their legs where they go in and out at the same time. _How the fuck can they do that? Don’t they have bones?_ Keith spared a glance over towards Lance, which was a mistake on his part, and locked eyes briefly before Lance turned away. The only real benefit to this move is that Lance uses it to turn around, so he’s no longer staring directing at Keith. Keith couldn’t help but sigh, wishing that the tense air between them would clear already.

 

The dance starts to repeat itself again; from the stepping sequence at the beginning, all the way through to the body rolls, jump moves, and hair flipping. The only real difference between this part and the start of the song was Lance mouthing the lyrics to the song while he danced. (Keith tried to look away, really, but Lance was like a magnet.)

 

When the beat changes again, another move was introduced. Allura and Lance move their arms down and curve up, stepping to the right, then the left, before stepping to the right twice, swinging their arms open and closed twice in front of them. They repeat the move on the opposite side, then repeat the move again on each side. Right when Keith was starting to gain more confidence in his dancing ability, the funky leg move comes back again—except this time they have to _move_ while they do it too—before stepping to the right twice and repeat the arm moves from earlier. After doing the move on the opposite side and repeating the moves _again¸_ they transition to the next move.

 

Lance turns around to face the class again, a bright smile on his face as he slides to the right, sliding his arms into a diagonal before planting his feet together and doing another body roll with his hands following the move. He slides to the other side, repeating the body roll again before tapping his feet in front of him, alternating between his left and his right as he swings his arms in front of him to the beat. Once they finish that move, Lance turns back to the front as they repeat the move again.

 

The chorus of the song starts again, and the jump/body roll combo makes another appearance. Keith suppresses a groan, wondering just how many times they were going to repeat the same five moves before the song finally ended. Once the repeat the jump/body roll move four times, the very first move from the dance made another appearance.

 

Lance turns back around to face the class for this last run through, ending the song facing the class before smiling widely and stretching his arms above his head. “Whew—there was a lot of quick moves there, huh?” The class responds with a few grunts, while one or two students left the floor to get a drink from their water bottles. Lance chuckles, walking over to the sound system and searching through his songs. “Don’t worry guys—we only have one more song before cool down~”

 

Keith suppresses another groan, lifting his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his face as another pop song starts to play.

 

Today was going to be a _long_ day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Hey Keith, how you holding up?”

 

Keith looks at Allura from where he was laying on the bench in the employee lounge, resting in between Lance’s second and third class. His legs were starting to ache, but there’s no way he was going to tell Allura that. He shrugs, looking back up at the ceiling and shrugging nonchalantly. “Pretty good.”

 

Allura raises an eyebrow, lips tugging up at the corners and rests her hands on her hips. “Really? Give me fifty pushups.”

 

Keith frowns, letting out a huff as he looks away, crossing his leg over his knee. “I don’t have to.”

 

Allura rolls her eyes, grabbing Keith’s foot and using it to flip him off the bench. “Yeah, sure.”

 

Keith yelps as he falls onto the floor, groaning in pain as he reaches up to rub the bump forming on his head, looking up at Allura and frowning. “What do you want?”

 

Allura reaches a hand down to help Keith stand up, sighing before falling on the bench. “Can’t I just check up on a childhood friend?”

 

Shit—Allura must have something serious to talk about if she’s using the “childhood friend” card. Keith takes her offered hand, then sits down next to Allura and frowns. “Just cut to the chase.”

 

“Fine, no beating around the bush. I’m worried about you.” Allura frowns, bumping her shoulder against Keith’s and kicking her feet absentmindedly, a sign of how worried she was. “You’ve gotten quiet—don’t give me that look. You and I both know that you’ve been warming up to everyone and talking more since you got hired here. We’ve all noticed—especially Shiro. God, he was so happy to see you opening up to people again. We haven’t seen you act like that since you were in elementary school.”

 

Keith bites his bottom lip as he looks down at his feet, guilt gnawing at his stomach at the thought of Allura and Shiro worrying about him. _Matt was probably worried too—even though he doesn’t like to show it._ He sighs, brushing his bangs out of his hair before glancing over at Allura. “Allura, I’m fine. Or at least I will be when things go back to normal.”

 

“Keith,” She sighs, draping her arm around Keith’s shoulder to pull him closer. “what if they don’t? Are you going to run away like you did last time?”

 

Keith tenses up, not used to such casual displays of affection. It takes him a few seconds to relax, shoulders relaxing as he leans into Allura. He closes his eyes, managing to whisper out as Allura cards her fingers through his hair. “No, if I do y’all would probably kill me.”

 

Allura chuckles, giving Keith a gentle squeeze as she smiles at him. “You know we would—have three people guaranteed to kick your ass—and probably everyone else at Voltron Gym as well.”

 

Keith shifts, a seed of doubt in his mind telling him that a certain someone would probably prefer him gone. “I’m not sure about everyone.”

 

“Oh hush—he’d miss you too and we both know it.” She tisks, reaching up to mess up his hair. “Now stop distancing yourself from everyone or I’ll kick your ass.”

 

Keith grimaces and leans away, groaning as he quickly combs his hand through his hair in a poor attempt to fix it. “Fine—but only because I know you can kick my ass.”

 

Allura smiles, standing up and pushes Keith’s shoulder. “Don’t forget it. Now let’s go—the next class starts in 5 minutes.” She smirks, cocking her hip out and crossing her arms across her chest. “Unless you want to admit defeat?”

 

Keith rolls his eyes and cracks a smile, standing up and stretching. “Never.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith was taking a little water break while Lance picked the next song, trying to ignore the burning in his legs as he gulps down the cool, refreshing liquid. It wasn’t even halfway through the third class and Keith was seriously debating throwing in the towel. Honestly—he’s not sure how Allura and Lance are still standing. He’s gone to every single class so far and he’s _exhausted._ He’s gonna be lucky if he can walk out to his motorcycle after work tonight—and there’s still one more class to go.

 

The door to the dance room opens, which is unusual when a class was in progress. Keith glances towards the door and blinks in surprise when he sees Shiro sneak into the room. He looks around for something, or someone, and pauses when his eyes land on Keith. He quickly and quietly makes his way over to where Keith was standing off to the side, putting a hand on his shoulder and whispering in his ear. “Keith, there’s some guy up front who keeps asking for you.”

 

Keith furrows his brow as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, breathing heavily as he catches his breath. “So? Tell him I’m not available—I’m busy.” He whispers back, putting his water bottle back in his bag and wiping the sweat off his face with his shirt.

 

“I did—he keeps insisting on seeing you—says he knows that you’re here.” Shiro sighs out, brushing his bangs out of his face and looking over at Keith.

 

Keith huffs, frowning at Shiro as music starts to fill the room again. “Just deal with him, okay? I’m not leaving and losing this bet.” He makes his way back to his spot right as the next dance started. He spots Shiro groan as he leaves the room, knowing his brother doesn’t like to deal with pushy people if he didn’t have to. Keith makes a mental note to make it up to him later—maybe by buying him a coffee from Beth’s café—but right now he had a bet to win.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Okay guys!” Allura turns around and claps, Lance heading up to the front to select the song for the next dance. “This next dance is new—so new this is the first class its taught in.” There’s a few ooo’s from the class, but Keith couldn’t work up their level of enthusiasm. The forth class was almost over, and he could hardly think with how much his legs were burning. _God, how do Lance and Allura do this every day?_

 

Lance hits the play button before running over to stand next to Allura, a grin on his face as the pair of Zumba instructors face the front of the classroom.  When the [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW5Vn8E9uxY) flows through the speakers, Allura starts to lead the class through the dance, swaying her hips back and forth to the beat of the song, left hand on her hip and right hand snapping. After four counts, Allura looks over her left shoulder, bringing her arms up and resting her hands on the top of her head, continuing to sway her hips to the beat. Keith follows along fairly well, his hips not moving along exactly—but close enough in his opinion.

 

In one fluid motion Allura pivots, stepping to the left twice, arms waving towards the right. When she steps to the left, she circles her head with her right arm, thoroughly confusing Keith as he starts to struggle. They only repeat that move-set twice before introducing a new “move”—which was just replacing the head-circle move with flicking her hand instead. After repeating the move again, they transition too the next set.

 

Allura and Lance start to do a move similar to the mashed potato—alternating between the left and right leg before repeating the move twice on the left—and alternating pumping their fists out and bumping them against their hips. The instructors repeat the set four times in total, following along with the upbeat music. In a blink of an eye, Allura slides her feet together, seeming to run in place for a few beats as she swings her arms at her side. After a few seconds, she steps out and back in, throwing her arms out and crossing them in front in time with her feet, then steps back to the center as she snaps her fingers and throws her arms behind her back.

 

The beat in the song changes along with the dance, the pair of instructors easily transitioning to the next move. They step to the right, swinging their arms in a circle in front of them and repeating it to the left, Allura’s ponytail swinging behind her. They repeat this move four times, then takes a step out and pump their arms out to the side. Once they pump their arms out four times, they pivot on their right foot and stop around in a quick circle.

 

After they repeat the move on the left side they cycle back to moves from the beginning—starting at the step/head circle move again. They continue doing the moves in a similar order—except Allura threw an extra move in. There was a part in the song where the singers stop and say “shhhh”, so Allura and Lance stand shoulder-width apart, moving their upper body in a circle—which completely threw Keith off. (He’ll say it was the move, instead of Lance winking at him in the mirror).

 

The dance continues repeating its sequence with the funky mashed potato remixed move, Keith able to follow along a bit easier than before—despite his legs burning. There wasn’t a new move introduced until after the stomp/circle move, allowing Keith to zone out and loose focus _just_ long enough to stumble and nearly fall. He flushes and curses under his breath, ignoring the smirk on Lance’s face as he narrows his focus on Allura.

 

Allura bends forward and steps out with her right foot twice, punching one fist down and the other out to the side before standing up straight, punching her fist in the air and high stepping with her left foot. She repeats the move three more times, then switch to the left side to repeat it three more times. Keith kept messing up the high step move, seeming to always step with the wrong foot no matter what side he did it on. He swore he could hold Lance chuckle, but that might just be in his head since the music was so loud.

 

The next move was pretty simple—just pumping their arms out to the side as they turn to the side, then circle their arms in front of them once they fully faced the side. They repeat the move to face the other side, before repeating the move again—stopping short so that they were facing forward.

 

The repetitive routine picks up with the running move, the pair of instructors seeming to get another burst of energy as they jump out and swing their arms in front of them. At this point Keith was almost certain that Allura and Lance were demons—because there is no way they should still be this energetic over halfway through their third class of the day.

 

Keith lets himself slip back into autopilot, his pride starting to waver as his body runs low on energy. Naturally, since Keith slipped into autopilot, Allura and Lance _have_ to change things. Instead of repeating the step/circle move like before, they stomp in place and throw their fists down to their side, then bend forward and quickly snap up, crossing their wrists together before stepping together. Then they step out and shimmy their shoulders, punching the air again before they shimmy around the front of the room and switch places, posing once the song ends. Needless to say, Keith was _completely_ unable to follow around, mostly just standing in place with his jaw on the floor.

 

Allura walks over and pauses the music, the only sign of her fatigue being the light sheen of sweat on her skin and her chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath she took. She looks out at the class and grins, picking up her towel and dabbing it on her forehead. “Everyone good?” The class cheers and Keith suppresses a groan, legs starting to wobble with the effort of keeping himself up. Allura grins, scrolling and selecting the next song. “We got one more before cool down, so we’re in the home stretch!”

 

Keith pulls his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his forehead, panting as he tries to catch his breath and sparing a glance over at Lance. The Cuban had an odd look on his face—eyes wide and jaw slightly agape—instead of the smug look Keith was expecting. He raises an eyebrow as he makes eye contact with Lance, noticing his face flush before quickly looking away. He blinks, tilting his head and frowning as he wonders why Lance was looking at him like that.

 

“Okay guys!” Allura claps, startling Keith out of his thoughts as music fills the dance studio again. “Let’s move on!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keith couldn’t feel his legs.

 

He could barely make his way back to the employee lounge after the final class ended. He groans as he falls down on the bench in the break room. He managed to sneak out before Lance could see him so that he could avoid his teasing for a few minutes before Lance starts pushing his buttons—teasing him about how tired he is after one of Lance’s work days.

 

Coran, the only other employee currently in the lounge, looks over from gathering his shower stuff to shoot a smile over at Keith. “Keithy-boy! How was your day?”

 

Keith groans, slumping over and resting his forehead against his closed locker. “I can hardly feel my legs.”

 

Coran grins, walking over and ruffling Keith’s hair as he passes by to head towards the showers, shower caddy and change of clothes in hand. “Allura’s Zumba classes can do that to you.”

 

Keith groans, weakly reaching up and pushing his hair back in a weak attempt to fix it. “Great, now you tell me.”

 

Coran chuckles, stopping in the doorway of the shower room and smiles over at Keith. “If I told you before, it wouldn’t have changed your mind. Now would it?”

 

Keith puffs out his cheeks, grumbling as he wipes the sweat off his face. “I guess…”

 

“Ah, young people haven’t changed a bit.” Coran grins, disappearing into the shower room before Keith could reply.

 

Keith huffs, shoulders dropping as he opens his locker and pulls out a fresh change of clothes. He desperately wanted to get out of his sweat-soaked shirt and back to his apartment—maybe take an ice bath for his aching muscles—but he’d have to stop by the store to buy enough ice. _So…. probably not._

 

The door to the employee lounge opens with a loud bang, causing Keith to jump and turn to look towards the door, eyes wide as they land on Lance with a shit-eating grin on his face. _Damnit._

 

“Keith! There you are!” Lance smirks, seeming to skip across the room as he makes his way over to Keith. “You sure ran out of the room in a hurry. Desperate to sit down?” He smirks, resting an arm on Keith’s shoulder and leaning against him, causing Keith to groan and shove Lance off.

 

“Fuck off, Lance.” Keith growls, slipping his shirt off and throwing it into his bag with more force than necessary.

 

Lance holds up his hands defensively, smiling crookedly as he opens his locker to get his things. “Maybe later, I got choreography to write for my next Zumba video.” He glances over at Keith, lips turning up at the side as he pulls out a water bottle. “Feel like tagging along? I’m sure you’re just _full_ of energy.” He chuckles, then laughs harder as Keith’s eyes widen and his jaw hangs open.

 

“What— _how—”_ Keith sputters, jaw hanging open as he gawks up at Lance. “How do you still have any energy _left?_ I can hardly feel my legs!”

 

Lance smirks, leaning in close to Keith and whispering softly. “Guess I just have more energy than you do.”

 

Keith sighs, putting on his clean shirt before standing up, pausing as the action causes his legs to burn further. He avoids looking at Lance, sliding off his workout shorts and sliding on sweatpants in their place. “Fine. Whatever.” He throws his things in his bag, mumbling under his breath as he gathers his things. “What do you want?”

 

Lance, seeming to ignore Keith’s curt behavior, pops his hip out to the side and holds his chin in his hand. “Hrm, what do I want you to do…” He pauses, a glint in his eye as he gets an idea. “Okay—first, you have to be a backup dancer in my next video—we shoot next Wednesday, so practice on Tuesday. _And_ you have to go shopping with me again.” He smirks, resting his hands on his hips as he looks down at Keith. “Sound good?”

 

Keith looks up at Lance, a deadpan expression on his face as he raises a single eyebrow in disbelief. He must not have heard right—Lance wasn’t the kind of guy who’d have Keith do shit he’s done for him before when he had the option for Keith to do _whatever_ he wants. “Really?”

 

Lance tilts his head, mouth going slack before taking a little step back, adding some distance between them. “Really what?”

 

“That’s… that’s it?”

 

Lance huffs, brows furrowing as he crosses his arms across his chest. “Well—yeah—what’s wrong with that?”

 

“Nothing—its just,” Keith pauses, taking a deep breath to calm himself down before things got too heated between them. “Wasn’t what I was expecting is all.”

 

Lance turns off to the side, clearing his throat and running a hand through his hair. He glances over at Keith, eyes narrowing slightly and voice lowering. “What were you expecting?”

 

Keith flushes, eyes widening a bit as he looks over at Lance. “What—nothing—”

 

“Keith Kogane—were you expecting me to ask you to do something _lewd_?”

 

“No! I wasn’t—” Keith stumbles, cheeks turning a darker shade of red and his chest tightening.

 

 Lance gasps, his tone switching from accusing to teasing in less than a second. He reaches over and shoves at Keith’s shoulder, lips tugging up in a smile as he gazes at Keith. “Shame on you. Get your mind out of the gutter, Kogane.”

 

Keith groans, running his hand down his face as he slides his jacket on. “Just tell me when you want to go shopping and get this over with.”

 

Lance pauses, something that Keith just said making him rethink what he was going to say. Before Keith could ask what was wrong, Lance takes out his phone and pulls something up to look at. “How about Friday after work? That work for you?”

 

Keith glances away and clears his throat, nodding as he keeps glancing between Lance and the exit. “Uh, yeah. It does.” He shifts his weight from foot to foot, feeling like he’s embarrassed himself enough today and wanting to run home and hide for a week.

 

Lance taps something into his phone, then shoots a small smile over at Keith. “Alright. So, see you tomorrow?”

 

Keith nods, then quickly turns on his heel and starts walking to wards the door. “Yep—see ya.” He rushes out of the room before he can hear Lance’s response but could hardly hear anything over the pounding of his heart in his ears anyway. He hops on his motorcycle and starts speeding home, wanting time alone so he could try to sort through his thoughts and wallow in self-pity.

 

He wanted to explain to Lance that he expected Lance to ask him to do something stupid like stealing Coran’s clothes while he was in the shower—or something embarrassing like singing barbie girl at the next staff meeting. The absolute _last_ thing he wanted to do was imply lance would make him do anything…. sexual. That was still a tense subject between them—actually, a lot of things were a tense subject between them.

 

Okay, so things were just tense between them.

 

Keith pulls up to his building and parks, taking the elevator up instead of the stairs since his thighs were aching so bad. He takes the short ride up to his floor, seeming to limp into his apartment and heading straight for the bathroom, deciding that a nice hot soak was more important than worrying about dinner.

 

He told himself he was going to stop thinking for tonight—stop thinking about work, his brother, his friends, and whatever it was that he and Lance. He was gonna clean himself up, put on a bad movie, and not worrying about anything going on in his life.

 

He spent the whole evening thinking about Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank you all again for being so patient while waiting for this chapter. I couldn't ask for better readers tbh 
> 
> Also just a reminder I'm getting art commissioned for this fic! I'll (eventually) get one piece done for each chapter, and I want to ask you guys for your imput! Just let me know which scenes from which chapters you guys would like to see in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mammahen) for updates on my writing (or to just scream at me, that's cool too)  
>  
> 
> Comments/Kudos appreciated and motivate the author to get chapters out faster.


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